D  524  . W55  1918A 
Wiggins,  Cecil  F. 

Saved  as  by  fire 


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SAVED  AS  BY  FIRE 


BY 


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CECIL  F.  WIGGINS,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 


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BOSTON 

THE  GORHAM  PRESS 


MCMXVIII 


COPYRICHT  I9l8,  BY  CECIL  F.  WlGGINS 
All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 


I  think  that  an  apology  should  be  made  for 
permitting  these  sermons  to  appear  in  the  press, 
as  they  were  hurriedly  written  and  not  in  any 
way  intended  for  publication.  Then  too,  they 
have  received  little  revision  or  fitting  preparation 
for  the  press,  but  are  in  the  form  they  were  de¬ 
livered  to  a  very  small  congregation.  Therefore 
they  will  reveal  looseness  of  style  and  lack  of 
correct  literary  expression,  but  if  only  they 
possess  enough  spiritual  quality  to  be  of  use  in 
bringing  somewhat  of  help  and  comfort  to  the 
troubled  souls  this  day,  or  serve  in  any  way  to 
“bind  up  the  broken-hearted,”  or  point  out, 
however  imperfectly,  God’s  purposes  of  love  in 
this  great  sifting  of  the  nations,  the  writer  will 
be  most  richly  rewarded. 


St.  Paul's  Rectory 

All  Soul's  Day ,  1917 


C.  F.  W. 


I 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 

I  Tried  by  Fire .  9 

II  The  Days  are  Evil .  19 

III  The  Great  Challenge .  27 

IV  The  War  and  Its  Needs  and  Pur¬ 

poses .  35 

V  The  King’s  Business .  44 

VI  The  Duty  of  Service .  53 

VII  Luke-warm  Christians .  62 

VIII  The  True  Strength  of  a  Nation ....  71 

IX  The  Home  Base  and  Its  Duties...  .  80 

X  God  and  Baal .  88 

XI  Love  Thy  Neighbour .  97 

XII  The  Lord  of  Battles .  106 

XIII  On  the  Lord’s  Side .  116 

XIV  All  Things  New .  125 

XV  Peace  Through  the  Sword .  135 

XVI  Victory  In  Seeming  Defeat .  145 

XVII  Quietness  and  Confidence .  153 

XVIII  He  that  Findeth  His  Life  Shall  Lose 

It .  161 

XIX  The  Gift  of  Gifts .  171 

XX  The  Glory  That  Shall  Be .  180 


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SAVED  AS  BY  FIRE 


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i 


SAVED  AS  BY  FIRE 

I 

TRIED  BY  FIRE 

For  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which 
is  Jesus  Christ.  Now  if  any  build  upon  this  foundation,  gold, 
silver,  precious  stones,  wood,  hay,  stubble,  every  marl’s  work 
shall  be  made  manifest,  because  it  shall  be  revealed  by  fire,  and 
the  fire  shall  declare  every  man’s  work  of  what  sort  it  is. 

i  cor.  in :  11-15 

WE  must  never  forget  what  the  Psalmist  tells 
us  that  “the  earth  is  the  Lord’s  and  the 
fulness,”  that  “He  has  made  the  round 
world  so  sure  that  it  cannot  be  moved.”  It  is 
important  for  us  to  remember  this,  for  there  are 
times  when  we  might  be  tempted  to  think  that 
it  was  more  the  Devil’s  world  than  God’s,  when 
as  today  the  very  mouth  of  Hell  seems  opened 
wide  and  all  its  power  let  loose.  This  might  lead 
us  to  suppose  that  if  the  great  enemy  is  in  any 
bound,  as  we  are  told,  he  must  have  a  long  chain. 
But  we  must  remember  that  all  this  is  a  part  of 
God’s  discipline.  He  tries  us  “as  silver  is  tried. 
This  we  know  is  true  of  life,  we  must  pass  through 
the  fire,  to  have  confidence  in  ourselves  or  our 
leaders.  We  never  can  know  what  it  is  to  be  a 
soldier,  if  we  remain  in  barracks,  it  is  only  in  the 
“battle’s  wild  alarm”  we  can  know  what  spirit 
we  are  of,  whether  we  are  men  or  poor,  miserable, 

9 


10 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


despised  shirkers,  with  no  courage,  no  manhood, 
no  loyalty,  .no  fire  in  the  blood,  that  would  bid 
us  live  or  die  for  truth  and  justice.  It  is  the  fire 
of  battle  that  proves  us  and  proves  too  our  com¬ 
manders.  So  God  is  constantly  proving  men  and 
testing  their  faith.  Testing  it  first  in  His  Divine 
ruling,  that  He  not  only  made  the  world  but 
governs  the  world,  this  day  and  every  day  and 
that  “  the  Most  High  ruleth  over  the  kingdoms  of 
men  ”  “  be  the  earth  never  so  unquiet.  ”  We  have 
the  assurance  that  through  all  failures,  shocks 
and  catastrophes,  through  all  “wars  and  rumors 
of  wars,”  however  terrible,  the  guiding  hand  of 
God  is  in  and  through  them  all,  a  Divine  purpose 
is  manifested — they  all  move  like  the  majestic 
motion  of  the  universe  to  “that  Divine  event  to 
which  the  whole  creation  moves. ” 

The  second  thought  we  must  ever  keep  before 
us  concerning  this  great  foundation  that  has  been 
laid  (this  immovable  rock  of  God’s  providence 
in  the  world)  is  that  His  promises  are  unfailing, 
“for  though  heaven  and  earth  pass  away,  His 
word  must  stand  forever.”  He  tells  us  “When 
ye  hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars,  be  not  troub¬ 
led  for  the  end  is  not  yet,  in  your  patience  possess 
ye  your  souls.  ”  However  sin  may  abound,  He 
tells  us  grace,  that  is,  the  power  of  God’s  favor 
and  goodness  does  much  more  abound.  If  this 
be  so,  we  see  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  calami¬ 
ty  in  its  true  sense.  There  must  be  always  an 
element  of  good  in  everything  that  God  permits, 
or  else  it  could  not  be  His  act  and  He  is  able  to 


Tried  by  Fire 


1 1 


make  “the  wrath  of  man  turn  to  His  praise”  and 
bring  good  out  of  evil.  Sin,  He  assures  us,  shall 
“not  have  the  dominion”  “nor  shall  the  gates  of 
hell  prevail.”  This  then  is  our  foundation,  other 
than  which  no  man  can  lay,  God’s  great  purpose 
for  the  world  must  be  fulfilled,  for  God  is  not  a 
man  that  He  should  lie,  nor  the  son  of  man  that 
He  should  repent.  Everything,  therefore,  must 
proceed  irresistibly  to  a  divine  event,  the  one 
great  purpose  of  God  for  man,  for  God  cannot 
fail  in  His  work  and  will  surely  bring  it  to  pass, 
were  a  hundred  kaisers  arrayed  against  Him, 
with  the  Devil  himself  in  chief  command.  But 
we  must  remember  the  warning  of  Christ,  “The 
end  is  not  yet.”  God  will  not  “hasten  His  work,” 
He  will  not  cause  peace  and  truth  and  righteous¬ 
ness  and  love  and  brotherhood  remain  upon  the 
earth  till  the  world  is  ready  to  receive  it.  How 
can  we  in  all  reason  have  Heaven  where  Hell  is 
rampant?  So  how  can  there  be  love  and  brother¬ 
hood,  where  men  and  women  bite  and  devour 
one  another?  Where  every  strategy  of  hell  is 
employed  to  crush  and  destroy  those  who  ought 
to  be  our  brothers?  Thus  we  see  though  the 
foundation  has  been  laid  by  the  hands  of  the 
great  Master  Builder,  and  although  it  is  a  founda¬ 
tion  that  cannot  be  moved,  and  although  the 
great  temple  of  His  Church  built  thereupon  must 
reach  its  glorious  completion;  yet  the  materials 
must  first  be  proved,  tested  by  the  Architect. 
They  must  be  “tried  stones”  without  fault  or 
blemish,  “meet  for  the  Master’s  use.”  Here  we 


12 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


come  to  the  most  significant  fact  of  our  whole 
life,  a  fact  that  we  should  keep  continually  before 
us,  that  although  both  the  founder  and  builder 
of  the  Church  in  the  world,  is  God  and  can  only 
be  God,  yet  it  is  His  fixed  and  unalterable  law 
and  principle  of  action,  that  He  will  do  nothing 
for  man  except  through  man.  So  though  God  is 
both  the  architect  and  the  builder  of  the  structure, 
yet  men  as  His  fellow  laborers  are  to  do  the  work. 
We  see  the  manifest  necessity  of  this,  since  the 
structure  is  not  one  of  wood  or  stone,  but  of 
human  lives.  It  is  a  supreme  structure,  it  is 
the  labor  of  our  own  hands,  of  our  wills  and 
purposes,  it  is  in  very  fact  ourselves.  God  is 
ever  present  to  help  us,  but  hie  will  not  work 
alone,  work  is  laid  upon  all  men  by  a  primal  law, 
written  by  the  hand  of  God.  We  find  it  on  the 
very  first  page  of  our  history,  “In  the  sweat  of 
thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread” — no  man  in  any 
condition  of  his  life  is  exempt  from  this  law,  or 
as  our  text  says,  “every  man  is  to  be  tried  by 
fire,  that  is,  in  the  heat  of  action,  for  there  are 
no  idlers  in  the  Lord’s  vineyard.  Therefore,  we 
see  that  every  Christian  belongs  to  the  working 
class,  he  is  to  be  proved  by  labor.  “If  a  man 
will  not  work,  let  him  not  eat,”  says  St.  Paul. 

“No  man  has  a  right  to  sit  down  to  the  feast 
of  life  without  paying  the  reckoning.”  It  must 
be  work  of  head  or  hand  or  heart,  but  it  must  be 
labor  of  diligence,  such  as  entails  sacrifice,  for  it 
is  written  on  the  bond,  in  that  the  nature  of  the 
work  was  such  as  to  produce  the  sweat  of  the  face. 


Tried  by  Fire 


13 


It  was  no  mere  perfunctory  labor,  of  nerveless 
duty,  but  an  earnest,  ceaseless  striving.  As  the 
great  Edison  has  said  “great  achievement  is  one 
per  cent  genius  and  ninety-nine  per  cent  sweat.  ” 
We  must  remember  that  manual  labor  is  not  the 
only  nor  is  it  the  most  exhausting  kind  of  labor, 
the  works  of  mind  or  heart,  are  more  serious  in 
their  demands  on  our  energies.  The  commander- 
in-chief  who  sits  at  headquarters,  far  from  the 
scene  of  battle,  but  planning  and  directing  every 
movement,  is  consuming  his  energies  more  than 
the  brave  men  at  the  front,  that  are  facing  the 
enemy  point  by  point,  and  enduring  the  shock 
of  battle.  So,  too,  the  captain  who  stands  on 
the  bridge  during  the  peril  of  the  storm,  directing 
the  course  of  the  ship,  is  giving  out  more  of  him¬ 
self  than  the  sailor,  who  far  aloft  risks  his  life 
to  reef  the  ship. 

But  whatever  our  labor  may  be,  whether  of 
head  or  hand  or  heart,  it  must  be  one  of  sacrifice. 
No  real  work  can  be  done  without  it,  for  it  is 
only  in  the  willingness  to  sacrifice  that  the  spirit 
of  our  work  can  be  seen,  that  it  is  true  and 
real,  that  it  is  a  work  of  the  heart  and  mind,  a 
thing  in  truth,  that  we  not  only  live  for  but  are 
willing  to  die  for, — as  the  Apostle  says,  “the  fire 
shall  try  every  man’s  work  of  what  manner  it 
is.”  But  we  must  remember  that  sacrifice  means 
strictly  something  given  or  offered  to  God,  it 
should  always  be  a  personal  recognition  that  we 
are  conscious  of  being  God’s  workmen  and  fellow 
laborers  with  Him. 


14 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


So  we  see  that  it  is  not  how  much  we  do,  as 
how  we  do  it  that  is  so  important,  it  is  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  our  act  that  makes  it  good  or  evil.  This 
is  clear,  for  it  is  quite  possible  that  we  build  our 
house  on  the  sand  of  perishable  material  of  which 
the  Apostle  speaks  “the  wood,  hay,  and  stubble” 
of  things  that  pass  away.  We  have  only  to  look 
out  into  the  world  to  see  a  self-sacrifice  amount- 
ing  almost  to  a  sort  of  heroism,  by  those  who 
have  set  themselves  out  like  Cain  of  old  to  “build 
themselves  a  name”  upon  the  earth  by  piling 
up  money  and  building  a  fortune.  From  youth 
to  old  age  they  subject  themselves  to  the  most 
rigid  economy  and  unceasing  labor.  Often  they 
will  shut  themselves  out  from  all  the  pleasures 
and  recreations  of  life,  intent  only  on  the  heaping 
up  of  money  that  they  cannot  really  possess. 
They  will  do  all  this  for  a  thing  that  cannot 
profit  them  and  compel  them  to  die  as  spiritual 
bankrupts  and  beggars  for  eternity.  How  neces¬ 
sary  then  is  this  warning  of  the  Apostle  about 
the  wood,  hay  and  stubble!”  The  wide  spread 
love  of  gain  is  one  of  the  most  prevailing  evils  of 
our  day,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  ignoble  of 
passions,  for  it  tends  to  crush  out  the  mosr  en¬ 
nobling  instincts  of  men;  it  is,  in  truth,  the  sin 
of  Judas,  who  took  his  price  to  betray  his  Master. 
The  sin  of  Judas  was  that  he  was  an  inordinately 
greedy  man,  even  as  the  grafters  of  our  day,  that 
would  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of  our 
country,  or  indeed  the  safety  and  welfare  of  the 
heroes  that  are  fighting  our  battles  today  and 


Tried  by  Fire 


15 


giving  their  lives  that  these  same  scabs  of  earth 
may  live. 

Human  speech  fails  when  we  would  speak  of 
the  depth  of  their  degradation  and  the  hopeless 
pit  of  evil  into  which  they  have  fallen.  There 
would  seem  to  be  no  hope  for  such  men.  We 
must  ever  remember  that  the  man  who  lives  for 
himself  dies  and  takes  his  stand  among  the  beasts 
that  perish.  He  is  a  blot  on  the  face  of  God  s 
creation  and  he  will  be  consumed  in  the  fire  that 
his  own  hands  have  built. 

While  the  man  who  is  filled  with  the  true  spirit 
of  sacrifice  is  fitted  to  survive  all  trials  and  diffi¬ 
culties,  to  meet  all  dangers,  aye,  to  meet  even 
death  itself  with  a  smiling  face.  Who  can  look 
out  over  the  battlefields  today  and  not  thank 
God  for  what  we  are  permitted  to  behold?  For 
think  of  the  glorious  record  of  courage,  loyalty, 
and  of  faithfulness  unto  death,  of  our  heroes  of 
Ypres,  Langemarck,  of  Festhubert,  and  Vimy 
Ridge,  who  “loved  not  their  lives  unto  death,” 
and  offered  the  glorious  sacrifice  of  their  life  blood 
for  home,  King  and  country,  and  have  made  the 
name  of  Canada  a  praise  in  the  earth.  They 
have  consecrated  the  land  of  their  birth,  and  we 
may  say  have  fertilized  the  whole  future  of  our 
history  by  the  richness  of  their  offering. 

Ah,  my  friends,  these  are  the  golden  spots  in 
our  history  that  never  will  grow  dim.  These 
are  the  things  that  make  angels  rejoice,  they  have 
been  tried  in  the  fire  and  they  have  proved  them¬ 
selves  pure  gold.  Men  that  are  willing  to  live 


i6 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


and  die  for  something  more  enduring  than  the 
“wood,  hay,  and  stubble”  of  the  things  of  time. 
They  may  not  have  had  gold  in  their  pockets,  but 
they  had  the  love  of  truth  and  justice  in  their 
hearts.  They  were  fellow  workers  with  God  and 
died  like  men  and  have  won  their  crown.  We 
talk  and  hear  a  good  deal  of  success  and  “mak¬ 
ing  good,”  but  who  that  believes  in  God  could 
picture  a  greater  or  more  glorious  success  than 
this?  These  noble  souls  have  done  more  for  the 
true  glory  of  Canada,  and  for  the  future  establish¬ 
ment  of  their  native  land  than  if  our  millionaires 
had  been  multiplied  a  thousand  fold,  kings  may 
sit  high,  but  no  man  sits  higher  or  on  a  mightier 
throne  than  he  who  is  privileged  to  die  for  his 
country,  and  no  crown  is  so  bright  as  the  crown 
of  him  who  gives  his  life  for  men.  They  have 
shed  a  glory  on  the  name  of  Canada  that  shall 
never  die  while  men  are  found  to  write  her  history, 
for  whatever  her  future  history  may  be,  it  can¬ 
not  be  denied  that  once  she  was  glorious,  through 
the  dauntless  deeds  of  her  sons.  Nor  is  the  glory 
of  their  bravery  only  in  the  past  or  present,  for 
it  will  be  a  future  glory;  for  as  a  people,  this  vast 
struggle  not  only  has  opened  the  pockets  of  our 
people  to  support  this  great  struggle  for  freedom 
and  truth,  but  it  has  opened  their  eyes  and  hearts 
to  the  vital  importance  of  these  things,  and  so  to 
see  that  there  are  some  things  more  precious  than 
gold  and  silver,  more  noble  than  mere  eating 
and  drinking,  more  honorable  than  sloth  and 
ease.  The  influence  of  this  discipline  must  re- 


Tried  by  Fire 


*7 


veal  itself,  in  the  future  history  of  our  people  and 
nation.  Indeed,  this  war  will  leave  the  whole 
world  different  from  what  it  found  it.  It  has 
come  as  a  mighty  spur  to  our  best  energies  and 
noblest  qualities,  it  has  fired  our  loyalty,  deepened 
our  love  of  our  people  and  nation,  widened  our 
sympathy  and  sense  of  brotherhood,  and  has 
done  much  to  draw  men  to  closer  union  and 
fellowship.  It  has  a  sobering  and  correcting 
influence  upon  that  reckless  spirit  of  indifference, 
seen  in  our  gay  and  frivolous,  pleasure  seeking, 
mammon-worshipping  age,  and  must  profoundly 
influence  the  destiny  and  welfare  of  the  whole 
world. 

The  war  came  like  a  bolt  from  the  blue  on  the 
motherland,  torn  by  strikes,  discord  and  strife 
of  party  and  danger  of  civil  war.  Every  man’s 
hand  seemed  turned  against  his  brother;  but  at 
the  first  rattle  of  the  sword,  turmoil  ceased,  dis¬ 
union  ended.  The  high  and  the  low,  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  the  prince  and  the  plebeian,  arose  as  one 
man  to  meet  the  foe,  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder 
against  the  inhuman  barbarism  that  would  leave 
the  trail  of  its  infamy  in  our  peaceful  borders 
and  crush  out  our  liberties  by  the  iron  heel  of  its 
insolent  might.  We  never  must  forget  that  all 
the  ideals  that  we  cherish  as  a  people  and  nation, 
rest  upon  the  foundation  of  liberty,  we  are  this 
day  fighting  our  very  existence  as  a  free  people. 
The  rule  of  Germany  would  strike  out  the  light 
of  freedom  from  the  earth,  bring  us  to  the  level 
of  the  savage.  Peace  will  come  in  God’s  good 


i8 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


time,  but  if  it  is  “not  yet”  as  Christ  warns  us  we 
must  learn  that  we  still  have  to  be  provedby  fire, 
but  there  can  be  no  staying  till  victory  is  ours, 
for  our  cause  is  the  cause  of  humanity.  But  we 
may  rest  assured  that  those  who  are  fighting  or 
who  are  about  to  fight  are  God’s  noblemen,  His 
chosen  knights  of  renown.  They  must  look  upon 
themselves  as  His  fellow  laborers,  consecrated  to 
do  a  holy  work  and  offer  a  real  sacrifice,  it  may  be 
of  life  itself  that  truth  may  remain  upon  the  earth, 
that  love  and  brotherhood  may  still  bind  human 
souls  in  a  fellowship  Divine.  So  we  say  this  day, 
“All  hail  to  our  brave  men  who  are  so  highly 
privileged  as  to  stand  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
noble  defenders  of  our  country !  May  the  panoply 
of  God  be  their  protection  and  give  them  faith  and 
courage  to  be  His  soldiers  tried  and  true!”  And 
God  grant  that  those  of  us  who  may  be  alive  to 
see  the  end  of  this  dread  struggle,  may  see  a 
Christian  nation  conscious  of  its  past  shortcomings 
and  resolute  and  determined  to  enter  on  the  new 
life  of  a  people  that  fears  God,  abhors  evil,  and 
reaches  forward  to  a  life  consecrated  to  fellow¬ 
ship  with  God  and  devoted  to  the  furtherance  of 
the  brotherhood  of  the  race. 


II 


THE  DAYS  ARE  EVIL 

See  then  that  ye  walk  circumspectly ,  not  as  fools ,  but  as  wise, 
redeeming  the  time ,  because  the  days  are  evil. 

eph.  v:  15-16 

IF  it  could  ever  be  said  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  world,  that  the  days  are  evil,  it  surely 
can  be  said  today.  Everywhere  we  hear 
that  the  gates  of  Hell  are  opened,  and  the  most 
depraved  passions  of  men  are  employed  to  do  their 
evil  work.  The  heart  sickens  when  it  attempts 
to  picture  the  awful  harvest  of  this  world-wide 
butchery  and  of  the  terrible  aftermath  of  misery 
and  wretchedness  that  must  follow,  as  the  in¬ 
evitable  result  of  this  chaos  of  destruction.  We 
see  the  cream  of  the  nation’s  manhood  snatched 
from  our  midst,  we  see  widowed  homes  and 
fatherless  children,  we  see,  too,  crippled  industries 
and  wasted  treasure.  Then,  looking  to  the  scene 
of  battle,  we  see  the  hopeless  destruction  of  town 
and  country,  the  devastated  fields,  the  cities  laid 
waste,  the  nameless  sufferings,  the  cruel  indignities 
of  the  people,  driven  from  home  and  fatherland 
subjected  to  the  ruthless  barbarity  of  worse  than 
heathen  war  lords. 

Then  surely  to  our  eyes,  “the  days  are  evil,” 
but  we  must  never  forget  that  God  rules  and  that 

19 


20 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


He  has  not  left  the  world  to  take  care  of  itself. 
We  must  ever  keep  in  mind  those  grand  words 
of  the  Psalmist,  we  have  never  had  so  much  need 
to  remember  them  as  today — that  “the  Lord  is 
King,”  that  “He  sitteth  between  the  cherubim, 
be  the  earth  never  so  unquiet.”  He  works  out 
His  mysteries  in  His  own  way.  Though  “  Heaven 
and  earth  shall  pass  away,  His  word  must  be 
fulfilled.”  His  purpose  is  the  only  thing  that 
cannot  fail.  Hence  it  comes  that  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  and  in  human  life,  it  must  be  ab¬ 
solutely  and  definitely  true  that  nothing  comes 
by  chance,  a  sparrow  cannot  fall  to  the  ground 
outside  God’s  purpose,  or  without  the  Father’s 
knowledge. 

But  we  must  remember  that  the  evil  that  is 
in  the  world,  is  not  His  making  but  man’s.  God 
has  endued  man  with  the  awful  power  and  re¬ 
sponsibility  of  a  free  will,  he  can  choose  good  or 
evil,  his  life  depends  on  the  exercise  of  this  free 
will.  If  he  wishes  to  do  evil,  God  permits  him 
to  do  so,  to  his  utter  loss  and  confusion.  He 
makes  sin  its  own  avenger,  and  bring  its  own 
punishment  and  so  reveals  to  man  not  only  the 
sin  but  the  folly  of  disobedience  to  God’s  law. 
Thus  it  is  that  “He  maketh  the  wrath  of  man 
turn  to  His  own  glory”  and  brings  good  out  of  evil. 

There  can  be  nothing  without  a  cause,  and  like 
begets  like.  If  there  is  evil  in  the  world,  we  may 
be  sure  that  it  is  because  man  has  sinned,  which 
has  called  for  God’s  judgment,  not  merely  for  the 
retributive  punishment  of  sin,  but  for  the  re- 


The  Days  are  Evil 


21 


demption  of  the  race.  Sin  must  always  bring 
its  own  revenge,  and  prove,  in  the  end,  a  curse 
to  any  people,  and  must  be  in  itself  destructive, 
since  it  is  the  rejection  of  God’s  law,  which  is  the 
law  of  the  universe. 

Hence  it  is,  when  the  days  are  evil,  and  sin  has 
the  dominion  we  learn,  thereby  that  God’s  laws 
have  been  transgressed,  and  that  God  is  working 
out  His  remedy  by  making  sin  its  own  taskmaster, 
and  making  it  bind  the  workers  with  its  own 
chains,  weighing  them  down  with  the  burdens 
that  they  themselves  have  made,  scourging  them 
with  the  whips  of  their  own  making. 

God  is  ever  pleading  with  His  people  that  they 
may  turn  to  Him  and  live,  that  they  may  walk 
as  wise  men  and  not  as  fools.  He  gives  them 
earthly  blessings,  fills  their  barns  with  plenty, 
and  makes  “their  presses  burst  out  with  new 
wine,”  or — in  the  language  of  our  day — He 
makes  industries  flourish,  wealth  increase,  business 
boom,  trade  develop;  till  the  world  is  our  market 
place.  With  what  result?  Lo,  our  wealth  has 
become  our  poverty.  God  has  spoken  to  us  in 
our  prosperity,  but  we  did  not  hear. 

Yes,  we  do  not  hear.  This  has  been  the  great 
sin  of  the  world  this  day,  for  we  must  face  the 
bitter  truth  that  the  more  we  get,  the  less  we  give; 
for  our  “heart  goes  after  our  coveteousness. ” 
Instead  of  being  the  worshippers  of  God,  we  be¬ 
come  worshippers  of  mammon,  and  practically 
say  to  the  things  which  our  own  hands  have  made 
“ye  are  our  gods.”  So  the  things  of  time  and 


22 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


sense  become  our  masters,  and  the  whole  earth 
becomes  reeking  with  the  pestilence  of  material¬ 
ism  and  therefore  tottering  to  its  fall. 

But  God’s  mercy  “is  over  all  His  people,”  He 
does  not  leave  them  alone  in  their  sin.  They 
have  rejected  His  mercy  in  the  day  of  their  pros¬ 
perity,  so  in  His  great  love,  the  day  of  adversity 
comes.  God  pleads  once  again  with  His  people, 
but  it  is  with  fire  and  sword  that  they  may  learn 
righteousness  through  His  judgments,  if  not 
through  His  blessings.  As  God  says  through  the 
mouth  of  His  prophet  Isaiah,  “For  behold  I  will 
come  with  fire  and  with  chariots  like  a  whirlwind, 
to  render  my  anger  with  fury,  and  my  rebuke 
with  flames  of  fire;  for  by  sword  and  fire  will  the 
Lord  plead  with  all  flesh  and  the  slain  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  many.  ” 

Hence  it  is  that  this  present  evil  day  has  come 
upon  us,  and  our  foes  as  He  foretold,  they  are  of 
“our  own  household.”  Yes,  it  is  the  voice  of  God 
that  we  hear  this  day  pleading  with  His  people, 
saying  “why  will  ye  die,  Oh  House  of  Israel,  and 
not  turn  to  me  and  live?”  But  it  is  in  mercy  He 
pleads,  not  in  anger;  He  is  speaking  in  the  words 
of  Christ.  “If  thine  eye  offend  thee,  pluck  it  out, 
and  if  thy  foot  offend  thee  cut  it  off;  for  it  is  better 
for  thee  to  enter  into  life  maimed  than  having 
two  feet  to  be  cast  into  Hell.  ” 

So  though  the  days  may  appear  to  us  as 
evil,  yet  these  are  days  pregnant  with  mercy  to 
the  whole  world.  Germany,  in  the  very  midst  of 
her  pride  and  arrogance  and  ruthless  barbarity, 


The  Days  are  Evil 


23 


though  going  to  her  destruction,  because  of  her 
sin  of  the  idolatry  of  human  might,  is  only  an 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  God,  working  out  His 
purposes  for  man.  For  “God  fulfills  Himself  in 
many  ways”  that  are  unseen  by  man,  and  His 
ways  are  not  as  our  ways,  nor  His  thoughts  as 
our  thoughts.  His  mysteries  are  beyond  human 
thought,  but  they  are  surely  safe  in  His  hands, 
and  our  wisdom  is  seen  in  leaving  them  there 
for  we  may  be  assured  that  He  doeth  all  things 

well.” 

We  are  living  in  what  we  may  call  a  grave 
crisis  in  human  affairs,  we  have  come  to  a  most 
momentous  epoch  in  the  world’s  history,  when 
God  is  opening  doors  in  almost  every  corner  of  the 
earth  to  the  entrance  of  those  who  would  do  .His 
work.  The  ancient  heathen  religions  are  being, 
one  after  another,  wholly  discredited.  The  great 
Moslem  power,  has  largely  heard. its  death  knell 
through  this  war,  while  the  great  kingdoms,  India, 
China  and  Japan  (as  also  darkest  Africa)— are 
like  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  and  are  all  calling 
to  us,  “come  over  and  help  us.”  And  this  cry, 
we  may  say,  comes  to  us  of  today  with  especial 
significance,  since  it  was  the  cry  of  that  very 
country  of  Macedonia,  which  at  the  present  time 
is  in  the  possession  of  British  troops. 

Thus  the  great  question  of  missions  is  thrusting 
itself  more  and  more  before  the  eyes  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  world,  it  is  realized,  that  if  we  would  save 
ourselves,  we  must  endeavor  to  save  others,  for 
“he  who  loveth  not  his  brother  abideth  in  death. 


24 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


How  can  we  love  our  brother,  if  we  deny  him  the 
blessing  of  Christian  light  and  knowledge?  In¬ 
deed,  we  have  no  choice  in  the  matter,  for  Christ 
has  said  “all  the  world,”  and  into  all  the  world 
we  must  go,  if  we  would  be  His  disciples.  We 
can  never  call  ourselves  a  Christian  nation,  in 
true  sense,  till  we  make  the  cause  of  missions, 
the  one  great  activity  of  our  people. 

We  believe  that  this  is  one  of  the  great  things 
that  God  is  preparing  the  world  for  through  this 
great  war,  first  through  its  unifying  influences  in 
establishing  the  brotherhood  of  the  race,  and  by 
bringing  men  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  fight 
and  if  need  be,  to  die  together  for  one  common 
cause.  The  struggle,  too,  has  been  so  fierce,  so 
terrible,  so  deadly,  that  it  has  put  a  most  severe 
test  on  the  moral  qualities  of  the  men  and  officers 
and  has  so  appealed  to  their  heroism  that  it  has 
strengthened  their  noblest  qualities.  We  may 
thank  God  that  the  appeal  has  not  been  in  vain. 
Never  in  all  history  has  such  a  spirit  of  seriousness 
so  pervaded  an  armed  host,  every  man,  we  may 
say,  seems  conscious  that  he  is  fighting  for  a  holy 
cause  that  demanded  his  unshrinking  fidelity  and 
the  cheerful  performance  of  whatsoever  he  might 
be  called  upon  to  bear.  Nay,  further,  the  offer¬ 
ing  of  the  supreme  sacrifice  of  life  itself,  seems 
in  many  cases  to  have  been  their  highest  joy. 
Indeed,  the  steadfast  valor  and  heroism,  under  all 
possible  conditions  of  the  men  who  are  fighting 
our  battles,  have  been  the  wonder  of  the  world. 

The  sacredness  of  our  cause  has  another  proof 


The  Days  are  Evil 


25 


from  the  widely  spread  conviction  felt  by  the 
troops  that  they  were  not  fighting  alone,  but 
that  the  warriors  of  an  unseen  host  were  fighting 
by  their  side.  This  may  tell  us  that  they  were 
conscious  that  they  were  fighting  the  Lord’s  battle. 

It  is  surely  of  the  deepest  significance  that  the 
spontaneous  consent  of  men  decided  that  every 
resting  place,  should  be  signed  with  the  sign  of 
the  cross,  and  may  we  not  hope  that  Christian 
people  will  follow  their  example  and  remove 
heathen  symbolism  from  their  graves.  Think 
of  the  millions  that  have  worn  this  sacred  symbol 
upon  their  breasts  when  they  went  forth  to  battle. 
How  fitting  then,  that  this  same  sign  should  mark 
their  resting  place,  since  they  like  their  Master 
have  died  for  men  and  for  the  welfare  and  re¬ 
demption  of  the  world. 

So  we  may  say,  that  the  influence  of  this  vast 
struggle,  has  tended  largely  to  deepen  the  spirit¬ 
ual  sensibilities  of  men,  for  it  has  brought  them 
face  to  face  with  the  stern  issues  of  life.  It  has 
awakened  men  and  women  from  the  fatal  sleep 
of  indifference  and  mere  bodily  indulgence.  Such 
surely  can  be  in  no  sense  “redeeming  the  time” 
(as  the  apostle  would  bid  us)  but  they  are  wast¬ 
ing  the  precious  hours  to  their  own  destruction, 
they  are  preparing  themselves  for  an  “evil  day” 
that  will  surely  come  upon  them. 

Let,  then  these  terrible  object  lessons  that 
are  being  presented  to  us  each  day,  serve  to  open 
our  eyes  to  the  real  things,  to  the  things  that 
count  to  ourselves  and  to  the  world.  Let  us  see 


2  6  Saved  as  by  Fire 


to  it  that  all  the  heroism  and  devotion  and  spirit 
of  sacrifice  for  these  same  real  things,  are  not 
reserved  to  those  who  are  fighting  our  battles 
for  the  freedom  of  the  world  in  this  present  evil 
day. 

Let  not  the  precious  blood  of  our  sons  that  has 
been  shed  for  us  and  for  the  world,  be  shed  in 
vain,  but  that  we  too  will  join  in  this  upward 
movement  of  the  race,  and  resolve  to  do  our  part, 
if  not  at  the  front,  at  the  base.  For  these  are 
the  days  of  sacrifice,  the  man  who  refuses  to  do 
“his  bit”  on  the  field,  is  called  a  “slacker”  and  he 
rightly  meets  with  our  contempt  and  we  despise 
him  from  our  very  hearts.  Who  then  can  measure 
the  disgrace  and  humiliation  of  the  spiritual 
slackers?  Those  who  are  afraid  to  meet  their 
spiritual  foes  and  refuse  to  put  on  their  spiritual 
armor,  who  are  satisfied  with  being  mere  camp 
followers  in  the  Christian  army,  but  are  prepared 
for  no  sacrifice,  willing  to  share  in  the  spoils  of 
the  battle  field,  on  which  others  have  given  their 
lives,  but  too  cowardly  to  fight,  or  to  offer  any¬ 
thing  in  sacrifice  for  God — such  surely  must  be 
eternal  slackers,  who  will  receive  swift  judgment 
from  the  Lord  of  battles. 

Oh,  then,  while  we  have  opportunity,  let  us 
redeem  the  time  that  is  given  to  us,  and  walk  as 
wise  men  for  “the  days  are  evil” 


THE  GREAT  CHALLENGE 


And  God  called  unto  Adam  and  said ,  “  Where  art  thou?  ” 

GEN.  Ill,  9 

IN  the  infancy  of  our  race,  when  sin  first  entered 
into  the  world,  through  the  disobedience  of 
our  first  parents,  we  are  told  that  Adam 
strove  to  hide  himself”  in  the  trees  of  the  garden. 
This  was  but  a  picture,  a  vivid  type  and  symbol 
of  something  in  the  desire  of  man,  that  would  evei 
be  impossible, — to  blot  out  through  our  own 
effort  the  results  of  sin;  for  sin,  is  its  own  avenger. 
“The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die”  and  this  by 
an  unchangeable  law;  for  sin  is  an  alien  in  God  s 
world,  it  is  a  discord  in  the  harmony  of  His  ordei. 
In  its  final  result,  it  must  be  as  a  jarring  note 
would  be  in  the  harmony  of  the  universe,  it  must 
lead  to  chaos  and  destruction.  This  is  because 
the  effects  of  sin  become  a  part  of  pur  very  nature, 
woven  into  the  texture  of  our  being,  as  the  warp 
and  woof  of  our  thoughts,  words  and  deeds,  and 
help  to  mould  all  our  efforts,  ambitions  and 
desires.  They  are,  indeed,  a  part  of  our  very 
being.  We  can  no  more  separate  ourselves  from 
our  sins,  nor  the  remembrance  of  them,  than  we 
can  separate  ourselves  from  our  shadows,  "Y  et 
how  men  ever  since  Adam’s  day,  have  been  at- 

27 


28 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


tempting  to  do  this  impossible  thing!  That, 
too,  in  the  self  same  way, — “in  the  trees  of  the 
garden,”  that  is,  by  endeavoring  to  surround 
themselves  with  the  things  of  this  present  world, — 
to  have  their  ears  so  dulled  with  the  din  and  noise 
of  things  seen  and  temporal,  their  hearts  so  over¬ 
charged  with  “the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of 
the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life”  that  they  cannot 
hear  the  voice  of  God  saying  to  them,  day  by  day, 
“This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it.  ”  We  must  never 
forget  that  nothing  just  happens  in  God’s  world, 
eveiy thing  to  the  insect’s  wing,  to  the  numbering 
the  hairs  of  our  head  or  the  sparrow’s  fall,  has 
a  Divine  purpose. 

Hence  we  see  that  events  of  our  life  are  as 
monitors  of  God,  hints  and  foreshadowings  of 
things  that  must  be  hereafter,  they  are  all  tokens 
of  God’s  deep  love  and  concern  for  His  children. 
Sometimes  God  speaks  to  us  in  the  still,  small 
voice,  of  health  and  prosperity,  of  quiet  hours, 
of  peaceful  homes,  of  fruitful  fields,  of  thriving 
industries,  and  well-filled  treasuries.  Then  again, 
when  hearts  become  cold,  and  sin  has  the  domin¬ 
ion,  then  do  “  His  judgments  appear  on  the  earth;” 
mighty  winds  “rend  the  mountains  and  break 
in  pieces  the  rocks  before  the  Lord,”  floods  and 
cyclones  and  earthquakes  sweep  over  the  earth 
without  a  moment’s  warning  leaving  death  and 
destruction  in  their  ruinous  pathway.  These, 
as  well  as  the  still,  small  voice  of  our  ease  and 
comfort  and  prosperity,  of  our  quiet  nights  and 
peaceful  days,  are  equally  the  voice  of  God. 


The  Great  Challenge 


29 


They  are  foreshadowings  of  eternal  things,  of 
judgments  saying  to  us  as  He  did  unto  Adam, 
“Where  art  thou?” 

These  terrible  visitations,  however,  are  not 
signs  of  God’s  anger  towards  His  children,  but 
testimonies  of  His  love.  As  we  are  told,  “whom 
the  Lord  loveth,  He  chasteneth,  and  scourgeth 
every  son  whom  He  receiveth.”  In  no  way 
could  His  want  of  Love  be  more  clearly  seen  than 
by  permitting  men  to  continue  in  sin  and  so 
allow  the  world  to  get  more  and  more  the  dominion 
over  them,  till  “the  things  belonging  to  their 
peace  should  be  hidden  from  their  eyes.”  So  it 
is  that  along  the  road  of  life,  God  puts  up  His 
sign-posts  saying,  “this  is  not  your  rest.” 

We  must  never  forget,  that  love  and  discipline, 
go  hand  in  hand;  love  without  discipline  is  mere 
selfish  sentimentality;  while  discipline,  is  the  very 
basis  of  character  and  of  moral  virtue.  The  son 
or  the  daughter,  that  knows  not  how  to  obey, 
will  be  the  child  of  many  sorrows,  and  often 
bring  down  the  gray  hairs  of  their  parents  with 
sorrow  to  the  grave.  And  this  for  the  simple 
reason  that  he  who  knows  not  how  to  obey,  does 
not  know  what  obedience  is  and  therefore  cannot 
govern  himself.  Thus  he  is  the  poor  slave  of  his 
own  will  and  evil  desire.  “What  son  is  there,” 
the  apostle  asks,  “whom  his  father  chasteneth 
not?”  “Now  no  chastening,  for  the  present  seem- 
eth  to  be  joyous,  but  grievous,  yet  afterward  it 
yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  to 
them  that  have  been  exercised  thereby.”  So  he 


30 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


tells  us  that  “God  chasteneth  us  for  our  profit 
that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His  holiness. 

We  believe  that  the  looseness,  frivolity,  spirit¬ 
ual  indifference,  and  lack  of  moral  fibre,  which  are 
so  characteristic  of  the  youth  of  our  day,  are 
largely  due  to  the  lack  of  discipline  in  the  house¬ 
hold,  and  the  absence  of  parental  authority.  If 
ever  the  apostolic  injunction  of  “children  obey 
your  parents,”  needs  to  be  enjoined  it  is  today. 
But  let  us  not  fail  to  mark  that  this  serious  evil 
is  more  the  fault  of  the  parent  than  of  the  child, 
it  has  its  foundation  in  the  lack  of  moral  courage 
in  the  parent  and  his  indifference  to  sin.  It  takes 
its  cue  from  that  spiritual  sloth  and  enervated 
softness  which  also  are  characteristic  of  our  day, 
which  attempts  to  hide  itself  under  the  spurious 
name  of  love,  and  which  produce  so  much  of  the 
mawkish  sentimentality  of  our  time.  We  must 
realize  more  and  more,  that  it  is  only  through 
much  tribulation  that  we  can  enter  into  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God,  and  therefore  without  discipline  we 
dead,  because  we  are  the  slaves  of  our  own  will, 
are  Hence  it  is,  that  we  need  to  be  continually 
roused  and  warned;  yes,  sometimes  bruised  and 
broken,  by  the  events  of  our  life,  that  our  eyes 
may  be  opened  to  see  our  dangers. 

Thus  it  is  today,  as  we  turn  our  thoughts  to 
the  bloody  fields  of  Europe,  hear  the  thundering 
boom  of  cannon,  the  trampling  of  the  mighty 
host,  see  the  awful  carnage,  the  rivers  of  blood, 
the  windrows  of  the  slain,  we  hear  the  voice  of 
God,  speaking  to  us  as  He  did  to  Elijah  in  the 


The  Great  Challenge 


31 


wilderness,  or  as  He  did  to  Adam  in  the  trees  of 
the  garden.  Yes,  in  trumpet  tones  He  is  speaking 
to  us  in  this  awful  war.  He  is  not  only  speaking 
to  Germany,  stamping  on  her  this  worse  than 
barbaric  slaughter,  but  He  is  speaking  to  us,  to 
the  nations  of  Europe,  yes,  to  the  whole  world 
He  is  summoning  them  before  the  bar  of  His  just 
judgment  to  consider  their  ways.  He  is  saying 
to  them  what  He  said  to  Adam,  “  Where  art  thou  ?” 
He  speaks  to  us  through  this  storm  of  passion, 
this  riot  of  destruction,  this  wild  conflict  of  human 
wills,  even  as  He  speaks  in  the  cyclone’s  wrath 
and  the  earthquake’s  destruction.  We  must  re¬ 
member  that  God  has  given  to  us  the  fateful  gift 
of  freedom  of  will,  the  power  to  do  good  or  evil 
in  our  little  sphere.  But  though  He  does  not 
dethrone  our  wills,  He  does  not  abdicate  His 
power  over  them,  nor  us.  We  may  disobey  Him, 
as  Adam,  and  destroy  ourselves;  but  we  cannot 
defeat  His  purpose.  He  overrules,  even  our  evil 
doing  to  His  own  ends.  We  would  attempt,  as 
the  world  has  done,  to  overthrow  evil  by  evil; 
but  He  would  overthrow  it  by  good,  and  turns 
evil  to  His  own  glory  for  the  “Lord  is  king,  be  the 
people  never  so  impatient,  He  sitteth  between 
the  cherubim,  be  the  earth  never  so  unquiet.’ 

What,  then,  is  God  saying  to  us  in  this  dread 
catastrophe?  First,  Fie  is  showing  to  us  and  to 
the  world,  as  it  has  never  been  witnessed  before 
in  all  man’s  history,  the  madness,  the  horrible 
cruelty,  and  the  unmeasured  wickedness  of  war 
in  general  but  especially  between  Christian  na- 


32 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


tions.  He  is  making  us  see  what  we  are  so  often 
told  today,  that  “war  is  hell”  and  therefore  never 
can  be  of  His  ordering.  He  may  and  does  permit 
it  because  of  man’s  sin,  but  He  can  never  order 
it  it  never  can  be  in  accordance  with  His  will, 
for  “He  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  ol 
peace.”  War  is  always  the  result  of  man  s  sin, 

of  human  pride  and  selfishness.  .  . 

It  is  true  that  under  present  conditions,  it  is 
sometimes  necessary  and  right  for  even  a  Chris¬ 
tian  nation,  in  its  own  defence  or  in the  defence 
of  others,  to  take  the  sword  in  hand  when  their 
rights  and  liberties  have  been  rudely  overthrown 
and  trampled  under  foot  by  the  tyranny  o  a 
stronger  power.  But  there  is  a  wide  gulf  fixe 
bv  God,  between  the  war  of  human  wrath  and 
that  of  righteous  indignation.  We  are  com- 
manded  of  St.  Paul  “to  bear  not  the  sword  in 
vain,”  and  His  counsel  is  “if  it  be  possible,  as 
much  as  lieth  in  you,  live  peaceably  with  all  men. 
War  is  not  always  the  expression  of  anger,  it  is 
often  the  self-sacrificing  desire  for  peace  and  rule 
and  order.  So  today,  had  England  refused  to 
imperil  the  nation  by  remaining  neutral  in  this 
present  war,  had  she  permitted  the  iron  heel  of 
Prussian  cruelty  to  stamp  out  the  liberty  of  heroic 
Belgium,  she  most  surely  would  have  played  the 
nart  of  a  poltroon  and  a  coward,  and  would  no 
longer  be  able  to  lift  up  her  head  as  leader  amongst 
Christian  nations.  Never  in  her  history  could 
she  so  clearly  claim  that  her  cause  was  just,  never 
could  she  more  confidently  feel,  humanly  speak- 


The  Great  Challenge 


33 


ing,  that  her  “  battle  was  the  Lord's .  ”  We 
believe  that  the  priceless  sacrifice  that  she  has  so 
freely  poured  out  in  this  great  struggle,  will  be 
as  an  atonement  for  her  many  sins  and  the  sins 
of  her  people;  that  the  blessing  of  God  will  descend 
upon  her  because  of  this  noble  sacrifice  for  truth 
and  righteousness,  and  that  she  will  arise  from 
this  “ agony  and  bloody  sweat”  a  renewed  and  re¬ 
stored  people.  The  scriptures  must  be  fulfilled 
and  so  we  must  not  forget  the  warning  of  Christ 
that  He  “came  not  to  send  peace  but  a  sword.” 
This  most  surely  shows  us  that  the  sword  must 
come  before  peace,  the  sword  must  cut  away  the 
false  before  the  true  can  be  revealed.  To  give 
liberty  to  the  oppressed,  help  to  the  fallen,  rescue 
to  the  crushed  and  down-trodden,  as  well  as 
retribution  to  the  tyrant  and  the  oppressor, — all 
this  becomes  a  Christian  duty  even  though  it  is 
maintained  by  the  sword. 

“Be  ye  angry  and  sin  not”  is  the  apostle’s 
summary  of  Christian  teaching.  We  see,  there¬ 
fore,  that  there  is  an  anger  that  is  not  sinful  but 
virtuous.  When  Christ  condemns  him  who  is 
“angry  with  his  brother  without  a  cause,”  He 
clearly  implies  the  truth  that  one  may  have  good 
cause  for  anger  against  his  brother.  Indeed,  we 
cannot  but  think  of  His  own  anger  in  the  temple 
courts  as  He  drove  from  the  sacred  place  the 
sacrilegious  mob  that  would  profane  the  holy 
House.  He  drove  them  out  like  hunted  swine 
with  the  besom  of  His  wrath.  War  then,  we  see, 
may  have  its  altogether  sacred  side.  It  is  the 


34 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


scourge  of  God,  and  His  rebuke  of  sin,  it  is  the 
forecast  of  His  final  rebuke  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment.  There  we  must  all  appear,  we  must  all 
hear  His  voice  as  Adam  did  at  the  cool  of  the 
day,— at  the  ending  of  our  life,  when  He  will  say 
to  us  also,  “Where  art  thou?  Give  an  account 
of  thy  stewardship  for  thou  mayest  be  no  longei 

steward.  ” 


IV 


THE  WAR  AND  ITS  NEEDS  AND 
PURPOSES 

THE  DAY  OF  INTERCESSION 

The  Lord  is  King ,  be  the  people  never  so  impatient,  He  sitteth 
between  the  Cherubim  be  the  earth  never  so  unquiet. 

PSALM  XCIX,  I 

THE  purpose  of  this  Day  of  Intercession  is 
expressed  by  The  Times : 

Another  year  is  drawing  to  its  close  under  the  shadow  of 
war;  and  today  the  King,  the  Head  of  the  Church  and  the 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  summons  his  people  throughout  the 
world  to  set  aside  the  first  Sunday  in  the  coming  year  as  a 
special  day  of  prayer  and  thanksgiving  prayer  that  we 
may  have  the  clear  sightedness”  and  “strength  necessary  to 
the  victory  of  our  cause,”  and  thanksgiving  “for  the  Divine 
guidance  which  has  led  us  so  far  towards  our  goal.  Amid  the 
clash  of  arms  and  the  daily  insistence  of  material  or  mechanical 
tasks,  it  is  not  always  easy  to  remember  that  we  are  banded 
together  to  establish,  with  brain  or  muscle  or  life,  the  cause 
which  to  all  of  us  is  the  noblest  of  all  causes..  In  the  knowledge 
that  all  his  loyal  subjects  have  faith  in  the  justice  of  that  cause 
the  King  bids  us  to  recall,  with  the  solemnity  of  a  day  set 
apart  the  ideals  which  we  are  striving  to  uphold.  If  the  call 
comes  at  a  time  when  we  cannot  fail  to  remember  that  the 
mills  of  God  grind  slowly,  it  comes  also  at  a  time  when  .we 
Englishmen  and  all  those  united  with  us  in  a  common. service, 
were  never  more  conscious  of  our  strength  or  of  the  rightness 
of  the  endeavor  in  which  it  is  being  used  to  the  utmost.  Thank¬ 
ful,  therefore,  for  the  height  of  our  calling,  and  that  our  women 

35 


i 


36 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


and  children  have  been  spared  the  full  horrors  of  war,  we  may 
humbly  renew  our  strength  and  welcome  the  King’s  command: 

“England,  on  thy  knees  tonight 
Pray  that  God  defend  the  right.  ” 

We  as  members  of  God’s  Church  are  gathered 
together  here  this  day,  for  prayer  and  supplica¬ 
tion  to  the  Ruler  of  the  earth  and  the  great  Arbiter 
of  the  nations,  in  a  supreme  crisis  of  our  history. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  our  people  has 
the  peace  and  the  material  welfare  of  our  race 
been  so  seriously  threatened.  That  reign  of 
peace  which  the  English  speaking  world  fondly 
hoped  for  and  labored,  has  been  cruelly  dashed 
to  the  earth,  by  hands  that  are  red  with  blood. 
Yes,  the  ruler  of  the  German  people  stands  before 
the  world  this  day  as  the  representative  of  a 
nation  that  has  brought  the  deepest  reproach 
that  has  ever  rested  upon  the  Christian  world, 
and  has  proved  itself  unworthy  of  the  name  of 
Christian.  Her  haughty  ruler,  though  he  has 
not  scrupled  to  take  the  name  of  the  God  of  love 
upon  his  lips,  has  had  war  in  his  heart,  and  has 
wilfully  and  wantonly  taken  upon  himself  the 
responsibility  of  the  wholesale  slaughter  of  his 
fellow  Christians,  establishing  hell  upon  earth. 
But  God  be  praised  he  can  at  worst  kill  only  the 
body,  he  cannot  snatch  from  that  martyred  Host 
the  unseen  medal  of  the  cross  which  lies  upon  the 
breast  of  him  who  dies  for  truth  and  justice  and 
offers  his  blood  as  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  his 
country  and  the  welfare  of  the  land  that  gave  him 
birth.  For  the  God  of  battles,  before  whose  eyes 


The  War  and  its  Needs  and  Purposes  37 


not  a  sparrow  falls  unseen  shall  surely  note  witn 
joy  the  fall  of  him  who  dies  that  the  tyrant  may 
be  vanquished  and  liberty  and  truth  may  remain 
upon  the  earth.  Yes,  those  fair  dreams  of  peace 
which  so  gladdened  our  hearts,  and  filled  us  with 
hope  for  the  welfare  of  the  world  and  led  many 
optimists  to  think  that  a  general  war  amongst 
Christian  nations  in  our.  present  state  ol  en¬ 
lightenment  was  simply  impossible,  have  been 
rudely  dispelled,  the  labors  of  our  statesmen  to 
preserve  the  peace  of  Europe  have  proved  un¬ 
successful  and  we  have  been  drawn  into  a  strugg  e 
which  we  have  provoked  in  no.  way  and  from 
which  we  seek  no  personal  gain.  A  military 
despotism,  similar  to  that  of  Napoleon  has  once 
more  (we  believe  for  the  last  time)  been  revived 
in  Europe  and  has  been  advanced  by  methods  oi 
cruelty  and  tyranny  which  have  long  since  been 
discarded  amongst,  civilized  peoples,  in  this 
unprovoked  aggression  and  in  an  unsought  quar¬ 
rel,  England  for  the  cause  of  peace,  justice,  and 
liberty,  for  the  sanctity  of  most  solemn  pledges 
given  between  nation  and  nation,  has  thrown 
herself  into  the  most  terrible  struggle  of  her  his¬ 
tory,  both  by  sea  and  land.  Indeed  we  know 
that  the  whole  continent  of  Europe  is  one  vast 
battlefield,  empurpled  with  the  blood  of  millions 
slain  as  the  price  of  a  tyrant  lust  that  would  be 
^ratified,  so  the  hope  of  peace  had  for  the  present 
vanished,  and  the  progress  of  the  world  gone  ten 
degrees  backward.  Yes,  you  may  be  ready  to 
say  that  is  all  true,  but  if  the  question  of  your 


38 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


text  be  true,  why  is  all  this?  If  the  God  of  the 
sparrows  is  our  God  and  if  He  still  “sitteth  be¬ 
tween  the  Cherubim,  be  the  earth  never  so  un¬ 
quiet,”  why  has  this  blessing  of  peace  which  the 
world  so  sorely  needs,  been  denied?  Why  has 
He  permitted  it  to  be  dashed  to  the  earth  by 
unholy  hands?  Why  this  cruel  carnage?  Why 
these  awful  windrows  of  death?  Why  the  untold 
sufferings  of  the  wounded,  and  the  tears  of  the 
widow  and  the  orphan?  In  short,  why  this  terri¬ 
ble  baptism  of  blood,  and  death  of  the  world’s 
peace?  The  answer  is,  “because  the  world  was 
not  ready  for  peace.”  It  has  not  yet  been  taught 
the  need  for  righteousness,  and  the  utter  barbar¬ 
ism  of  war.  Let  us  not  think  that  it  is  the  German 
of  only  that  has  sinned,  let  us  not  point  the  finger 
scorn  only  at  him  for  this  war.  We  too  must  veil 
our  faces  and  hang  our  heads  in  shame  and  say 
“our  sins  have  taken  such  hold  upon  us  that  we 
are  not  able  to  look  up,”  both  we  in  Canada  and 
those  of  our  blood  in  the  motherland  have  given 
ourselves  over  “to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  and  the 
lust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life.”  We  had 
well-nigh  forgotten”  the  Lord  our  God  who  had 
done  such  great  things  for  us.”  For  previous  to 
the  war  it  was  an  age  of  feverish  instability  and 
unrest  and  disquietude.  The  political  life  in  the 
motherland  had  become  a  hopeless  muddle  o j 
incapacity,  a  seething  chaos  of  party  strife,  which 
made  effectual  government  a  farce  and  a  byword. 
The  law  of  the  land  seemed  powerless  to  punish 
or  restrain  deeds  of  violence  and  wholesale  destruc- 


The  War  and  its  Needs  and  Purposes  39 


tion  of  most  valuable  property  and  beautiful 
works  of  art,  the  priceless  treasures  of  the  nation, 
even  the  sacred  monuments  of  the  peoples’  de¬ 
motion,  the  venerable  Churches  of  the  land,  were 
not  safe  from  destruction  by  the  hatchet  or  bomb 
in  the  hand  of  a  crazy  mob  of  fanatical  women, 
who  not  only  confessed  their  crime,  but  gloried 
in  it.  Yet  the  law  of  England  seemed  “as  a 
lamb  led  to  the  slaughter”  to  this  foe  that  had 
arisen  in  their  midst,  and  the  whole  land  was 
terrorized  by  criminals  that  a  sane  justice  would 
have  kept  behind  prison  walls.  Nor  was  it  in 
dealing  with  factious,  silly  women  only  that  the 
might  and  majesty  and  old  time  justice  of  British 
rule  and  government,  seemed  weak  and  vacillat¬ 
ing  and  wanting  in  its  ancient  dignity,  for  it  was 
seen  also  in  its  manifest  injustice  and  its  desire 
to  pander  to  popular  prejudice  in  despoiling  the 
Church  in  Wales  of  its  sacred  heritage  and  by  its 
shilly-shally,  uncertain  policy,  fomenting  religious 
strife  in  Ireland,  which  nothing  but  a  common 
danger  allayed  and  only  a  foe  at  our  gates  pre¬ 
vented  from  ending  in  civil  war. 

Nor  was  it  only  here  that  England  had  sinned 
— in  which  we  too  have  our  share — for  with,  her 
as  with  us,  an  insane  hunger  for  the  great  things 
of  the  earth  ruled  the  hour,  since  all  around  us 
were  men,  whose  loftiest  ambition  seemed  cen¬ 
tered  on  wringing  out  of  this  world,  its  pleasures 
and  its  honors  and  its  riches.  Social  unrest  was 
wide-spread,  the  strife  between  capital  and  labor 
was  ever  existing,  millions  were  crying  for  bread, 


40 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


while  millions  were  feasting  and  ruining  their 
souls  through  indolence,  luxury  and  ease.  The 
very  foundations  of  the  Christian  faith  were  con¬ 
fidently  questioned,  and  a  science  falsely  so-called 
had  deceived  many,  revealing  to  us  how  little 
after  all  the  so-called  culture  and  refinement  and 
the  manifold  discoveries,  and  material  progress  of 
this  wonderful  age  can,  in  themselves,  do  for  the 
elevation  of  the  race.  Sin  still  stalked  trium¬ 
phant.  Lust,  crime  and  moral  degradation  reared 
their  heads  with  amazing  insolence.  The  old 
time  respect  for  law,  order  and  the  sterner  virtues, 
which  at  one  time  were  the  marked  characteristics 
of  the  English  people,  were  wanting..  The  Esaus 
were  abundant,  willing  to  sell  their  birthright 
for  a  mess  of  pottage,  even  sport  had  become 
mercenary,  and  had  lost  its  virility.  Men  grasp¬ 
ed  at  luxury  and  ease,  and  spurned  the  sterner 
virtues  of  manly  endurance.  So  the  whole  life 
of  the  people  had  become  lax  and  enervated  for 
they  were  losing  sight  of  lofty  ideals  and  reverence 
for  truth  and  God  and  His  service.  They  were, 
in  truth,  endeavoring  to  live  without  Him  and 
the  knowledge  of  His  ways. 

Since  this  is  we  believe,  a  true  record  of  our 
life  at  this  time,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  if 
“God  still  sitteth  between  the  Cherubim,”  can 
we  wonder  that  His  wrath  is  abroad  this  day? 
And  here  let  us  mark  that  in  this  evidence,  of 
God’s  chastening  hand,  that  history  is  repeating 
herself,  in  that  His  people  of  old  were  brought 
to  a  similar  condition.  They  too  had  forgotten 


The  War  and  its  Needs  and  Purposes  41 


God  their  Saviour  and  had  turned  to  Egypt, 
that  is,  to  military  organization  to  defend  them, 
till  as  today,  “their  enemies  set  in  upon  them 
like  a  flood ”  even  till  “there  were  no  widows  to 
make  lamentation.”  When  they  came,  we  are 
told,  with  our  question  today  on  their  lips  “why 
is  this  evil  come  upon  us?”  God  answers  them 
in  terms  exact,  “Because  ye  have  robbed  me, 
this  whole  congregation.  ”  So  we  too  have  robbed 
God,  not  only  in  tithes  and  offerings  but  in  the 
honor  due  unto  His  Holy  Name.  Robbed  Him 
through  our  coldness  and  luxury  and  ease  and 
indifference;  through  our  failure  to  realize  our 
responsibilities  to  the  great  heathen  world,  who 
are  this  day  looking  on  our  deep  shame  and 
humiliation  and  asking  in  wondering  amazement, 
is  this  all  that  Christianity  can  do?  Is  this  how 
Christians  love  one  another?  Surely,  this  day 
is  a  day  that  calls  for  our  intercession  to  the  God 
of  battles,  that  He  would  be  pleased  to  crush 
oppression,  give  liberty  to  the  slaves  of  imperial 
power,  that  He  would  subdue  the  arrogant^  and 
humble  the  proud,  who  put  their  trust  in  the 
spear  and  the  shield,”  in  dreadnaughts  and 
machine  guns.  But  we  must  go  further  this  day 
and  pray  that  God  would  have  mercy  upon  our 
own  sins.  The  sin  of  this  war  does  not,  thank 
God,  lie  at  our  door,  though  we  through  our  wilful 
sin  have  been,  in  part,  responsible  for  it;  so  its 
lesson  is  needed  for  us  as  well  as  the  Germans. 
It  is  a  call  to  us  to  mend  our  ways,  for  in  spite 
of  former  chastisements,  notably  the  Boer  war, 


42 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


we  had  grown  careless  and  indifferent.  As  a 
people,  we  were  fast  becoming  the  Godless  nation 
that  were  trying  to  live  without  God  in  the 
world.  Therefore  this  evil  has  come  upon  us 
and  the  wrath  of  God  is  abroad  in  the  land. 
Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  we  must  face  stern 
facts.  We  are  in  death  grips  with  a  relentless 
foe  that  will  fight  to  the  last  gasp.  Let  us  not 
fail  to  remember  that  Britain’s  life  is  ours,  and 
when  she  dies,  we  die. 

Let  us  remember  that  each  one  of  us  has  his  or 
her  duty  to  perform  as  a  contributor  to  the 
nation’s  well  being.  A  calamity  such  as  this 
which  is  now  hanging  over  us,  is  a  call  to  every 
single  soul  to  do  its  share  for  the  nation’s  victory. 
May  we  and  our  mother  land  and  our  noble  allies, 
combine  to  form  a  serious,  sober,  God-fearing, 
reverent  nation,  whose  watch-word  is  duty,  and 
whose  banner  is  truth.  Let  us  banish  our  political 
puerilities  and  childish  bickerings,  as  well  as  our 
shameless  indulgences! 

England  calls  to  us,  the  world  calls  to  us  and, 
above  all,  God  calls  to  us  to  be  men ,  to  be  on 
the  side  of  truth,  integrity  and  honor.  May  God 
preserve  the  right!  Should  we  then  not  lift  up 
our  hearts  this  day?  Yes,  lift  them  up  to  the 
Great  Lord  of  battles,  for  the  occasion  has  no 
parallel  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Never  has 
the  call  to  prayer  rung  out  so  clear,  so  wide,  so 
imperative  as  today.  The  great  Church  of  our 
mother  land  is  on  her  knees,  daily  prayer  and 
daily  Eucharist  is  the  rule  in  many  of  her  churches. 


The  War  and  its  Needs  and  Purposes  43 


The  quiet  hush  of  the  spiriCofjprayerJis  the  pre¬ 
vailing  note  of  her  people. 

So  we  come  before  Him  today  to  pray  for  our 
king  and  our  statesmen  and  our  soldiers  and 
sailors  and  our  noble  band  of  nurses,  those  Red 
Cross  heroines  who  have  gone  with  the  ministry 
of  mercy  in  their  hands.  But  let  us  continually 
lift  up  our  prayers  for  our  brave  volunteers, 
both  the  fighting  and  the  fallen,  who  have  gone 
forth  on  this  blessed  crusade,  and  have  pledged 
their  faith  to  fight  for  home  and  country.  May 
God  give  them  His  strength  and  protection  to 
fight  the  good  fight  that  may  win  for  them  the 
Crown  of  Glory  that  fadeth  not  away.  Amen. 


V 


THE  KING’S  BUSINESS 

The  king’s  business  requireth  haste. 

I  SAMUEL  xxi,  8 

THE  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon”  was 
the  great  battle  cry  of  that  consecrated  host 
who  went  out,  under  the  leadership  of 
Gideon,  to  fight  against  the  uncircumcized  host 
of  Midian,  the  old  time  enemies  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  who  suffered,  we  are  told,  a  most  inglori¬ 
ous  defeat,  and  were  utterly  wasted. 

This,  we  believe,  was  but  a  type  and  a  fore¬ 
shadowing  for  all  time  of  the  final  overthrow  of 
God’s  enemies  and  the  final  establishment  of 
His  kingdom  in  the  world.  Therefore,  have  no 
shadow  of  doubt,  that  those  fell  powers  that  have 
bound  themselves  under  an  oath  to  rob  humanity 
of  its  life,  by  which  we  mean  the  principles  of 
truth  and  liberty,  freedom  and  brotherhood,  must 
be  through  God’s  help  crushed  and  overthrown 
this  day. 

So  “the  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon,”  is 
once  again  the  slogan  of  a  consecrated  host.  Yes, 
those  of  our  own  blood,  those  loyal  sons  of  ours, 
who  have  gone  forth  from  their  comfortable 
homes,  to  endure  untold  privations,  to  face  un¬ 
moved  all  the  powers  of  hell  for  the  love  of  home 
and  king  and  country,  these  men  are  most  surely 

44 


The  King's  Business 


45 


worthy  the  highest  honor,  and  are  in  truth  King’^s 
men,  and  if  they  are  not  fighting  for  the  King’s 
business,  then  it  is  nowhere  to  be  found.  For  if 
we  are  in  any  sense  Christian  people,  we  must 
acknowledge  that  the  great  business  set  before 
the  Christian  world  this  day,  is  to  build  up  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  We  may  say 
that  never  since  the  world  began,  was  there  such 
a  splendid  opportunity;  for  from  east  to  west, 
from  north  to  south,  the  cry  goes  up,  “  come  over 
and  help  us.”  We  see  a  wide  open  door  in  every 
land,  the  ancient  cults  are  languishing  as  things 
of  the  past.  There  is  a  general  awakening  in 
heathen  lands,  civil,  social  and  educational.  As 
with  St.  Paul  of  old,  scales  have  fallen  from  the 
eyes  of  the  countless  millions  of  the  East.  They 
are  having  new  visions.  They  are  desiring  new 
things,  and,  above  all,  they  are  beginning  to 
learn  of  Christ.  They  are  looking  forward  to  us 
to  “expound  unto  them  the  way  of  God  more 
perfectly.” 

All  this  was  seen  and  known  of  all  men,  yet 
what  was  the  action  of  the  Christian  Church 
previous  to  this  war?  Did  it  act  as  if  it  was  the 
King’s  business  to  be  done  above  all  things  and 
at  every  cost?  No,  surely  the  very  best  they  did 
was  to  make  it  “a  side  show”  and  not  their  busi¬ 
ness.  They  let  their  hands  hang  down,  they 
hugged  their  gold  and  kept  back  their  sons  from 
the  ministry,  so  allowed  this  vast  opportunity  to 
pass  by. 

This  we  believe  to  be  the  colossal  sin  of  our 


46 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


time,  like  Ananias  and  Sapphira  we  have  lied  to 
God,  we  have  called  ourselves  Christians  and 
have  kept  back  the  price  of  being  Christians,  we 
have  absolutely  failed  to  recognize  the  solemnity 
of  the  King’s  command  to  go  into  all  the  world, 
that  this  call  of  God  was  and  must  be,  the  great 
business  of  the  Church,  the  very  pledge  of  her 
existence.  We  have  called  ourselves  soldiers  of 
the  King  and  have  proved  traitors  to  His  cause. 

This  we  may  believe  is  the  great  sin  for  which 
we  are  being  called  into  judgment  this  day.  We 
have,  as  we  have  said,  “kept  back  part  of  the  price” 
by  robbing  God  and  now  God  is  making  us  pay  a 
hundredfold,  by  our  gold  and  the  untold  sacrifices 
of  our  choicest  sons. 

In  the  pouring  out  of  these  sacrifices,  we  believe 
that  God  has  awakened  the  whole  world  to  an 
intense  seriousness,  has  lifted  the  whole  race  to 
loftier  ideals  and  to  the  nobility  of  sacrifice,  of 
living,  or,  if  need  be,  dying  for  a  great  cause. 
Selfishness  has  ever  been  the  world’s  greatest 
curse,  but  one  of  the  great  features  of  this  terrible 
war  has  been  self-sacrifice,  the  forgetting  of  self, 
it  has  developed  in  a  marked  degree  love  for 
others,  it  has  inspired  men  to  the  loftiest  heroism, 
the  most  unswerving  devotion  to  the  welfare  of 
men  and  the  willingness  to  die  that  men  may  be 
free,  and  that  truth  and  righteousness  may  remain 
upon  the  earth. 

Who  can  tell  the  effect  of  this  great  awakening  ? 
Who  can  estimate  the  fruit  that  will  be  gathered 
from  the  sowing  of  this  precious  seed  of  the  blood 


The  King’s  Business 


47 


of  our  sons?  Must  it  not  remain  to  nourish  the 
earth?  How  can  the  men  who  are  permitted  to 
return,  who  have  fought  so  nobly  for  truth  and 
righteousness,  wholly  disregard  it  in  their  after  life? 
Mustn’t  the  desire  for  it  remain  to  bless  their 
lives?  Think  of  what  it  will  do  to  advance  the 
brotherhood  of  men  and  how  it  will  tend  to  break 
down  the  barriers  between  nations,  and  prepare 
the  way  for  the  unity  of  the  race! 

Let  us  think,  then,  how  all  these  combined 
influences  will  work  together  for  the  development 
of  God’s  Kingdom  and  the  promotion  of  the 
King’s  business?  Those  too  of  the  non-christian 
races,  who  are  permitted  to  return  from  this  vast 
strife,  to  the  several  corners  of  the  earth,  will 
carry  back  the  deep  impressions  they  received 
from  association  with  men  of  noble  impulses  and 
lofty  aspirations  that  will  act  as  leaven  to  the 
heathen  world. 

Hence,  may  it  not  be  that  God  will  turn  even 
this  frightful  carnage  to  His  own  glory,  and  make 
it  a  way  for  opening  the  whole  world  to  the  com¬ 
ing  of  Christ  and  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel? 

Should  this  be  so,  it  would  be  the  fulfilment  of 
our  Saviour’s  words,  when  He  tells  us  that  He 
came  “not  to  send  peace  but  a  sword,”  because 
through  His  Divine  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
He  knew  that  the  cross  must  come  before  the 
crown,  that  men  must  pass  “through  much  tribula¬ 
tion  before  they  could  enter  the  kingdom.”  This 
tells  in  other  words  that  the  religious  life  is  a  life 


48 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


long  battle,  we  learn  to  quit  ourselves  like  men, 
to  be  strong  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy  that 
would  seek  to  gain  the  victory  over  us,  in  a  word, 
that  we  should  prove  ourselves  good  soldiers  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Do  we  not  see  how  all  these  quali¬ 
ties  are  learned  on  the  field  of  battle  and  become 
the  very  marks  of  the  true  soldier? 

Oh,  for  the  heroism,  the  courage,  the  loyalty 
of  our  brave  boys  in  the  king’s  colours  at  the 
front  1  Why  is  it  that  men  can  be  such  heroes 
in  khaki  and  such  cowards  in  the  Church?  Ought 
not  this  splendid  heroism  in  the  battlefield  put 
us  to  shame  in  the  Church?  We  can  be  brave 
and  self-sacrificing  about  anything  else  except  m 
our  love  and  duty  to  God.  We  heed  no  hindrance 
in  our  pleasures,  we  brave  storms  and  tempest 
in  our  social  gatherings,  yet  they  chill  our  hearts 
when  we  are  called  to  God’s  House. 

May  it  not  be  that  a  brighter  day  is  dawning, 
that  this  consecrated  host  that  has  gone  forth  to 
fight  the  battle  of  the  Lord,  and  have  fought  so 
bravely,  and  so  many  have  given  up  their  lives 
as  soldiers  of  the  King  of  Kings,  may  it  not  prove 
that  in  the  Providence  of  God,  they  will  be 
amongst  the  greatest  missionaries  of  our  time, 
and  by  their  noble  examples  lift  up  the  minds  to 
nobler  things  than  hoarding  money  and  accum- 
■  lating  bonds?  For  we  do  surely  know,  if  we  have 
any  reason  or  true  knowledge  of  life,  that  these 
things  cannot  truly  enrich  us,  for  say  what 
you  will,  or  think  as  you  may,  you  know  in  your 
heart  that  the  King’s  business  is  the  only  business 


The  King  s  Business 


49 


that  can  meet  its  creditors  and  pay,  not  only 
dollar  for  dollar,  but  a  hundredfold  at  the  great 
balancing  day,  since  “there  is  nothing  that  a  man 
can  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul.”  Do  not  the 
noble  lives  of  these  men  who  are  fighting  our 
battles  and,  if  need  be,  dying  for  us  make  us 
hang  our  heads  for  shame,  if  we  lead  selfish  lives 
today?  If  we  give  ourselves  to  selfish  ease  and 
pleasure,  when  our  own  flesh  and  blood  are 
bleeding  and  dying  that  we  may  live? 

Let  us  remember  that  no  true  Canadian  father 
or  mother  can  hold  back  any  son  that  is  physically 
fit,  from  this  great  struggle,  without  lasting  dis¬ 
honor  to  that  son  and  to  themselves.  Yes,  let 
Canadian  mothers  and  wives  know  that  they  could 
do  no  greater  injury  to  their  sons  and  husbands, 
than  by  holding  them  back.  It  is  an  injury  that 
will  be  stamped  on  them  through  all  their  lives, 
the  history  of  the  future  will  point  the  finger  of 
scorn  at  them  and  will  mark  them  as  ingrates  and 
cowards  and  as  traitors  to  their  country  and 
compel  them  to  hang  their  heads.  Never  in  our 
history  has  there  been  such  a  trumpet  call  for 
men  to  prove  their  manhood,  such  an  opportunity 
to  claim  the  highest  honor  as  heroes  in  a  noble 
cause,  to  a  dignity,  to  an  honor,  that  all  the  titles 
and  honors  of  earth,  are  as  nothing,  to  an  honor 
that  outlasts  the  stars, — that  of  living  or  dying 
for  truth. 

Some  of  our  brave  lads  may  never  come  back, 
but  what  of  that?  Let  us  remember  that  they 
will  have  their  names  and  their  graves  marked 


50 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  to  tell  us  that  they  died 
as  men  and  not  as  selfish  cowards.  They  died 
fighting  for  principles  they  loved  more  than  life. 
They  died  that  truth  and  liberty  might  remain 
to  those  they  loved  in  the  sacred  land  that  gave 
them  birth,  and  they  have  their  reward.  They 
realized,  each  in  his  own  way,  that  the  thing  he 
was  fighting  for  was  the  King’s  business  for  the 
establishment  of  the  rule  of  Christ  in  the  world. 
They  were  not  fighting  for  their  own  temporal 
welfare,  for  nothing  but  temporal  discomfort  and 
disaster  awaited  them.  They  knew  that  most 
probably  death  was  before  them;  yet  they  faltered 
not,  they  faced  death  in  its  most  awful  and  most 
sickening  forms  for  the  prize  of  their  high  call¬ 
ing.  ' 

Here  I  cannot  but  quote  the  words  of  one  who 
has  added  much  to  the  world’s  gladness,  and  has 
made  millions  laugh.  Harry  Lauder  shows  that 
he  has  the  true  heart  that  his  humor  indicates, 
and  love  of  his  fellow  man.  In  speaking  of  this 
awful  strife,  he  asks,  “Is  it  all  for  nothing  that 
these  sojer  lads  go  off  to  the  front  laughing  and 
singing,  aye,  laughing  and  singing  to.  the  very 
end?  What  is  it,”  he  asks,  “what  gives  them 
the  power?”  I  believe  it  is  God;  take  God  out 
of  it,  then  what  our  soldiers  have  done,  and.  are 
doing,  would  be  sheer  lunacy..  They  might 
better  have  stayed  at  home,  with  those  lofty 
souls  that  were  afraid  to  fight, — men  who  had 
learned  what  was  done  to  the  women  of  France 
and  Belgium  and  might  be  done  to  the  women 


The  Kings  Business 


5i 


of  our  own  country,  and  yet  tried  to  persuade 
themselves  that  it  was  wrong  to  kill  the  vermin 
of  earth  that  would  do  such  things. 

No,  those  whom  we  see  in  our  trenches  are 
m  n,  they  put  away  all  thoughts  of  profit  or 
safety. 

They  chose  a  life  of  certain  hardship  and 
hourly  danger;  they  walked  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  death.  Then  I  say,  either  they  were  fools, 
or  else  God  reigns  and  holds  in  His  hands  earth, 
Heaven  and  Hell. 

They  died  for  us,  they  died  for  their  mothers, 
they  died  for  their  sweethearts  or  for  their  help¬ 
less  children.  They  died  for  the  old  home  and 
all  the  memories  that  cling  around  it;  for  the 
lighted  hearth,  the  clean  board,  and  the  prattle 
of  the  bairns;  for  the  thought  of  those  far-away 
days  when  a  dear  mother  happed  them  round, 
and  crooned  them  to  sleep  with  her  baby  song! 
“Was  it  worth  while?”  he  asks,  “Are  any  or  all 
the  noble  deeds  of  life  worth  while?  Or  is  this 
world  a  hideous  nightmare  where  those  who  call 
themselves  men  struggle  blindly  for  their  own 
selfish  ends;  Yes!  thank  God,  it  is  worth  while; 
the  sacrifices  that  have  been  wrought  are  not  in 
vain,  it  is  not;  for  nothing  we  suffer.  ”  Then  shall 
we  falter  with  the  blood  of  our  dearest  unavenged? 
Shall  Canada  betray  her  sons?  Shall  we  parley 
with  Hell?  Shall  we  make  base  bargains  with 
those  whose  hands  are  red  with  the  blood  of  our 
sons? 

It  is  for  all  or  nothing  we  fight;  either  we  slay 


52 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


this  evil  beast,  or  let  it  live  to  curse  the  world; 
either  we  keep  faith  with  our  dead,  or  betray 

them.  There  is  no  half-way  house,  no  com¬ 
promise  possible.  Treaties,  Pledges,  Terms,  what 
are  they  to  a  German?  No,  there  is  only  one 
thing  to  be  done,  and  that  is  cut  him  down ,  for 
what  is  our  most  precious  possession?  Is  it  not 
our  faith  in  Christ,  which  is  truth  and  freedom 
and  brotherhood,  in  a  word  the  King’s  business? 
For  this  our  sons  have  fought  and  died,  for  this, 

then,  let  us  live  or  die.  Shall  our  sons  of  the 
future  be  ashamed  of  their  sires?  Then  let  us 
buckle  on  our  harness.  Whatever  sacrifices  are 
demanded,  make  them  bravely,  cheerfully.  Stand 
fast  to  the  end.  Let  us  be  worthy  of  our  name 
as  soldiers  of  the  King,  engaged  in  the  King’s 
business.  Victory  is  our  word  today;  if  we  falter 
before  the  debt  of  our  dead  sons  is  paid,  then 
we  are  a  degenerate  stock,  unworthy  of  our  sires. 
Let  us  prove  today  of  what  stuff  we  are  made, 
the  blood  of  our  ancestors  stirs  us  on,  our  Honor 
Roll  points  the  way.  Let  us  give  as  they  have 
given, — their  best  that  final  victory  may  be  ours 
and  so  secure  the  triumph  of  the  King’s  business. 


VI 


THE  DUTY  OF  SERVICE 


Take  heed  to  the  ministry 
that  thou  fulfil  it. 


which  thou  hast  received  of  the  Lord, 

COLL.  IV,  1 7 


MAN  has  but  one  life,  and  it  is  a  life  that  can¬ 
not  die.  What  is  called  death, ,  is  but  a 
phase  of  life,  a  means  of  transition  to  an¬ 
other  and  more  exalted  condition  of  life.  So  it 
comes  that  time  and  eternity  are  really  the  same 
thing,  indefinitely  extended,  they  belong  to  each 
other,  as  the  seed  belongs  to  the  tree,  or  the  fruit 
to  the  flower.  Time  is  the  soil  out  of  which 
eternity  springs,  the  harvest  is  as  the  sowing, 
the  future  is  determined  by  the  now ,  everything 
centres  on  the  living  present.  The  future  can 
have  no  influence  on  man’s  character  or  history. 
This  shows  us  that  the  future  and  the  present 
are  indissolubly  connected  by  a  vital  union  which 
never  can  be  broken,  and  that  the  coming  life‘ 
is  not  something  which  is  somehow  to  begin  when 
the  present  is  past,  but  something  that  is  to 
spring  out  of  the  present,  to  succeed  it  as  the 
harvest  succeeds  the  sowing.  Hence  it  follows 
that  all  life  is  sacred,  is  really  a  consecrated  ser¬ 
vice  which  really  has  but  one  end,  which  is,  in¬ 
deed,  the  one  purpose  of  life,  the  one  thing  we 
were  created  to  do.  Therefore,  everything  how- 

53 


54 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


ever  great  or  however  small  that  does  not  in  some 
way  tend  to  further  this  great  end;  as  far  as  we 
are  concerned,  is  not  only  useless  and  vain,  but  a 
positive  hindrance  to  our  real  advancement. 
And  this  comes  from  the  fact  that  this  life,  has, 
as  we  have  said,  but  one  purpose, — to  be  used 
as  a  preparation  for  another.  Eternity  is  the 
only  measure  of  time,  it  is  its  guardian  and 
keeper. 

Hence,  when  we  attempt  to  shut  up  our  life 
in  compartments,  divide  it  up  into  times  and 
seasons,  talk  about  secular  and  sacred  duties,  or 
desire  in  any  way  to  separate  our  daily  life  from 
our  religion,  we  are  attempting  to  do  an  impos¬ 
sible  thing,  since  it  is  quite  impossible  to  perform 
a  neutral  act.  It  must  be  religious  or  irreligious, 
it  must  have  been  done  through  faith  in  God, 
or  through  lack  of  faith  in  Him.  This  brings  us 
to  notice  the  fact  of  man’s  stewardship  from 
which  he  cannot  escape,  which  is  at  once  his 
highest  good  or  his  most  extreme  danger:  his 
highest  good,  if  fulfilled,  the  loftiest  dignity  that 
man  is  capable  of  receiving,  an  insignia  of  honor, 
that  is  unfailing  and  imperishable  and  higher 
than  any  king  or  potentate  of  earth  is  capable 
of  conferring.  It  is,  moreover,  an  honor  ‘high 
and  mighty  as  it  is — that  is  open  to,  and  within 
the  reach  of  all.  The  humblest  may  strive  with 
the  mightiest,  and  receive  an  equal  reward, 
though  the  advantage  is  always  on  the  side  of 
the  weak,  the  humble.  Yes,  the  king  and  his 
meanest  subject  work  side  by  side,  the  rich  and 


The  Duty  of  Service 


55 


the  poor  labor  in  the  same  field.  God  is.  no  re¬ 
specter  of  persons,  so  the  commander-in-chief 
and  his  humblest  subaltern  are  comrades  on  the 
same  battlefield.  Aye,  they  and  the  little  drum¬ 
mer  boy  that  keeps  up  his  inspiring  tattoo,  in  the 
face  of  the  enemy,  may  each  by  his  faithful  ser¬ 
vice,  make  angels  rejoice  and  have,  the  sign  of 
the  cross  eternally  implanted  on  his  breast  by 
the  King  of  Kings. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  remember  that 
the  use  of  time  which  may  bring  us  imperishable 
honor,  may  if  abused  bring  upon  us  hopeless 
disaster  through  an  eternal  dishonor.  This  is 
true  no  matter  how  great  may  be  our  effort  to 
attain  distinction  on  any  field  of  contest,  no 
matter  what  position  we  may  have  secured,  wealth 
we  may  have  gathered,  or  again,  the  high  sound 
ing  titles  we  have  attached  to  our  name,  though 
it  took  the  whole  alphabet  to  tell  of  our  titles 
they  are  in  themselves  but  as  dross,  empty  bau¬ 
bles,  telling  of  failure  and  eternal  disaster.  .  Why  ? 
Because  we  have  failed  in  our  stewardship,  our 
perspective  has  been  foreshortened  to  view  things 
only  from  an  earthly  standpoint,  we  have  made 
things  of  earth  an  end  not  as  means  to  an  end, 
they  have  not  been  done  through,  or  because  of 
faith  in  God,  but  because  of  faith  in  ourselves 
and  in  things  of  time.  We  must  never  forget, 
whoever  we  are  or  whatever  we  may  be,  whether 
high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  ignorant  or  learned, 
general  or  subaltern,  that  we  stand  absolutely 
equal  in  God’s  sight,  all  entrusted  with  the  same 


i 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


56 


stewardship,  all  His  ministers,  each  in  our  several 
place  and  calling,  with  talents  measured  by  the 
unerring  hand  of  God,  talents  which  are  entrusted 
to  us  to  be  employed  in  the  Master’s  service. 

These  talents,  moreover,  are,  we  are  told,  ex¬ 
actly  suited  to  our  use;  for  it  was.  “every  man 
according  to  his  several  ability”  in  the  terms 
expressed.  It  is  important  for  us  to  remember 
this,  for  we  are  often  tempted  to  think  we  could 
have  done  better  work  in  some  other  condition, 
but  to  make  this  true,  we  would  need  a  wisdom 
superior  to  God.  No,  my  friends,  let  us  be 
assured  that  there  are  no  misfits,  nor  short  reckon¬ 
ings  about  life  and  its  conditions;  it  is  a  part  of  a 
divine  plan.  As  the  sun  in  the  Heavens,  we  have 
to  go  forth  each  day  to  our  daily  labor,  to  the 
doing  our  “ little  bit  ”  in  God’s  vineyard.  Wheth¬ 
er  that  bit  be  in  our  peaceful  homes  in  Canada, 
or  in  the  roaring,  shrieking  din  and  blinding 
vapor  of  the  battle-scarred  fields  of  France  or 
Belgium;  an  equal  glory  awaits  the  faithful  labor- 
er.  Yes,  a  fitting  reward  to  every  man;  it  may 
not  be  from  his  comrades,  it  may  not  be  that  V.  C. 
is  pinned  on  his  breast  by  the  command  of  .his 
king  and  country;  but  a  loftier  honor  awaits  him, 
pronounced  by  the  King  of  Kings,  “well  done, 
thou  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into 
the  joy  of  thy  Lord.”  The  watchword  of  the 
Christ  was  meant  to  be  the  watchword  of  our 
lives,  for  He  was  our  example.  He  had  but  one 
ideal  in  life  and  that  was  His  Father’s  business. 
“I  must  be  about  my  Father’s  business;”  it  was 


The  Duty  of  Service 


57 


the  one  thought  of  His  life.  It  is  most  significant 
for  us  to  remember  that  His  ministry  was  largely 
connected  with  things  of  earth;  for  twenty-seven 
years  He  wrought  and  labored  as  man,  His 
Father’s  business  took  Him  into  the  field  of 
common  toil,  to  the  carpenter’s  shop  and  the 
ordinary  vocations  of  men,  that  He  might  sanctify 
them  and  fit  them  for  man.  Thus  it  was  that  He 
endeavored  to  prepare  all  fields  of  labor  for  the 
Master’s  use  and  do  His  work.  And  what  was 
all  this  to  us  but  to  teach  us  the  value  of  time  and 
labor  because  they  were  so  instrumental  in  work¬ 
ing  out  God’s  purpose  in  the  world?  So  it  was 
that  Christ  summoned  every  man  to  work  in  His 
vineyard,  promising  every  man  a  reward  pro¬ 
portioned  to  his  labor — yes,  even  though  he  came 
at  “the  eleventh  hour.”  There  was  hope  of  reward 
for  every  man  except  for  him  who  remained  “idle,” 
— who  was  not  employed  in  the  Master  s  work, 
those  who  utterly  failed  in  their  ministry,  in  the 
stewardship  of  the  Master’s  goods.  How  signi¬ 
ficant  it  is  that  we  are  told  that  the  unfaithful 
steward  of  old,  “buried  his  talent  in  the  earth! 
Just  what  unnumbered  millions,  in  their  consum¬ 
ing  blindness,  are  doing  this  today,  planning  and 
thinking  only  of  earth,  forgetting  the  purpose  and 
glory  and  dignity  of  their  high  calling, — that  was 
not  to  be  mere  earth  workers  as  the  ox  or  the 
ass,  but  Divine  laborers,  fellow-workers  with 
God, — engaged  in  laying  foundations  of  a  great 
work  which  will  outlast  the  stars  and  go  on,  in¬ 
creasing  in  beauty  and  glory  as  the  ages  pass. 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


58 


Thus  it  was  that  our  great  Master  taught  us  the 
value  and  end  of  time  and  bid  us  mark  the  beauty 
and  value  of  each  passing  hour.  He  would  bid 
us  reverence  today  because  of  tomorrow,  in  order 
that  we  might  each  day  be  “a  day’s  march  nearer 
home.”  Yes,  the  present  is  sacred,  every  moment 
of  it,  because  of  the  glorious  future.  Today  we 
must  fulfil  our  allotted  task  as  God’s  workmen  in 
the  position  in  which  we  stand,  whether  bending 
our  backs  in  the  field  of  labor,  or  standing  behind 
our  counters,  or  in  the  trench,  armor  clad,  waiting 
for  the  enemy,  ready  to  do  our  bit  for  God  and 
humanity.  It  is  all  one  service,  to  which  we  are 
called  in  the  work  of  our  ministry.  There  is 
nothing  that  we  need  more  continually  to  remind 
ourselves  than  this, — that  there  are  no  neutrals, 
nor  camp  followers  in  God’s  army.  We  must 
be  either  fighter  or  traitor  for  we  are  distinctly 
told  that  those  who  do  not  labor  actively  for 
Christ  are  laboring  actively  against  Him.  There 
is  then,  we  see,  no  halfway  house  between  Heaven 
and  Hell,  as  many  seem  to  think  who  would  live 
without  a  religious  purpose  and  lose  sight  of  the 
sacredness  of  time. 

We  have  a  most  telling  instance  of  this  given 
in  the  gospel  of  “the  certain  rich  man  who  was 
clothed  with  purple  and  fine  linen  and  fared 
sumptuously  every  day.  ”  He  was,  it  would  seem, 
no  active  transgressor,  no  brawler  nor  intemper¬ 
ate  man,  “no  remover  of  his  neighbor’s  landmark” 
He  was  no  doubt,  indeed  one  of  the  most  respected 
members  of  the  community;  in  short,  he  was  the 


The  Duty  of  Service 


59 


man  of  the  big  house,  and  of  the  long  bank  ac¬ 
count.  He  was  the  one  man  whose  death  spread 
a  gloom  over  the  whole  place  in  which  he  dwelt* 
The  praise  of  him  was  on  every  lip.  He  was  the 
one  man  whose  happiness  and  good  fortune 
every  one  envied.  This  we  may  well  believe, 
yet  when  he  passes  through  the  transitional  door 
of  death,  we  are  permitted  to  know  of  his  eternal 
condition,  for  it  was  “  in  hell  he  lifted  up  his  eyes. . 
Here  we  may  pause  to  ask  what  caused  this 
terrible  catastrophe  in  this  most  respectable  man’s 
life?  What  was  his  sin?  There  was  only  one 
lodged  against  him,  and  that  was  spiritual  in¬ 
difference,  he  had  forgotten  the  purpose  of  life. 
He  had  neglected  his  ministry,  he  had  passed  by 
the  sick  and  the  wounded.  Like  the  Levite,  he 
had  gone  by  “on  the  other  side.”  His  brother 
Lazarus  lay  at  his  very  gate,  his  pathetic  appeal 
for  help  and  succor  moved  the  very  dogs  in  the 
street,  while  the  rich  man  sat  in  his  palace.  Like 
Gallio  of  old,  “he  cared  for  none  of  these  things.” 
Not  until  his  eyes  were  opened  in  another  world, 
was  the  depth  of  his  folly  revealed  to  him. 

And  how  important  it  is  to  remember  that  it 
was  only  when  he  “lifted  up  his  eyes”  that  he  real¬ 
ized  what  he  had  lost!  On  earth  he  had  looked 
down,  his  thought  was  centered  on  earth,  he  saw 
only  what  earth  could  give  him.  “Moses  and  the 
prophets”  had  spoken  to  him  of  God  s  service  and 
had  bidden  him  “worship  the  Lord  thy  God  and 
Him  only  shaltthou  serve.”  Yet  he  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  everything  but  time  and  self,  and  so  was 


6o 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


placed  behind  the  bar  of  God’s  judgment,  as  an 
unfaithful  steward;  while  the  humble  Lazarus, 
though  clothed  in  rags  and  covered  with  sores, 
was  considered  worthy  of  His  Kingdom.  All 
literature  fails  to  give  us  a  more  striking  and 
effective  parable,  telling  us  of  the  value  of  time 
and  the  purpose  of  life.  It  shows  us  the  utter 
inability  of  earthly  things,  even  in  their  most 
lavish  abundance,  to  supply  our  need.  It  tells  us 
too  most  truly,  of  our  ministry,  our  stewardship 
in  the  sight  of  God,  that  we  never  can  be  ozvenrs , 
only  servants  under  a  master  to  whom  we  must 
give  an  account  of  what  we  have  done,  the  way 
we  have  employed  our  talents  that  He  has  placed 
in  our  hands. 

Let  our  last  thought  then  be,  concerning  the 
sacredness  of  the  “common  round  of  our  daily 
task,”  we  are  each  one  on  a  divine  mission, 
whether  we  be  citizens  or  soldiers,  we  have  been 
called  by  God  to  do  a  holy  work;  especially,  I 
may  say,  those  who  have  the  high  privilege  and  the 
lofty  dignity  of  being  permitted  to  enter  into  this 
holy  war,  in  which  we  and  our  beloved  allies  are 
now  engaged.  All  the  forces  of  cruelty  and  op¬ 
pression  are  arrayed  against  us.  The  welfare  of 
humanity  at  large  is  at  stake.  May  we  not 
thank  God  that  our  noble  sons  “have  done  their 
deed  yet  scorned  to  blot  it  with  a  name?”  They 
are  the  unseen  heroes  of  that  “thin,  red  line” 
that  ever  has  been  the  glory  of  the  British  race 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  because  that  line 
ever  has  fought  for  truth  and  righteousness,  for 


The  Duty  of  Service 


61 


right  and  justice  between  man  and  man.  May 
those  who  are  now  fighting,  or  are  now  putting  on 
their  armor  to  fill  the  ranks  of  those  who  have 
fallen  in  the  tide  of  war,  remember  to  emulate 
the  deeds  of  those  who  have  gone  before  and 
never  forget  that  they  are  Christian  soldiers, 
sworn  to  fight  for  God  and  king  and  country, 
consecrated  for  a  sacred  work  and  therefore  may 
“take  heed  to  the  ministry  which  they  have 
received  of  the  Lord,  that  they  fulfil  it.” 


VII 


LUKE-WARM  CHRISTIANS 


Because  thou  art  luke-warm , 
spew  thee  out  of  my  mouth . 


and  neither  cold  nor  hot ,  1  will 
rev.  in,  16 


THESE  words  indicate  a  contemptuous  loath¬ 
ing,  an  absolute  disgust  and  unspeakable 
contempt,  for  a  type,  of  religious  life,  that 
the  great  seer  of  Patmos  found  existing  at  Laodi- 
cea.  They  remind  us  of  those  words  of  ringing 
scorn  and  of  absolute  condemnation  which  came 
from  the  lips  of  the  Master  of  the  mock  religion 
of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  of  His  day.  Nothing 
seemed  to  arouse  His  indignation  and  contempt 
so  much  as  lip-service.  To  the  diseased  and  the 
fallen,  He  was  ever  merciful.  For  the  penitent 
sinner,  His  heart  was  overflowing  with  tender¬ 
ness  and  love,  ready  to  stretch  forth  His  hand, 
to  receive  them  and  bid  them  “go  and  sin  no 
more.  But  for  those  who  would  make  their  ser¬ 
vice  of  “mint,  anise,  and  cumin,”  take  the  place 
of  holiness  of  life,  His  withering  indignation  knew 
no  bounds,  His  words  of  wrath  burnt  like  fire, 
He  spake  as  if  the  very  gates  of  Hell  were  open 
to  receive  them. 

These  words  of  Christ,  as  well  as  those  of  His 
loved  disciple,  in  our  text,  show  us  the  shudder- 

62 


Luke-warm  Christians 


63 


ing  profanity  of  an  insincere  profession,  of  a 
service  in  which  the  heart  has  no  part.  St.  James 
tells  us  that  “a  double-minded  man,  is  unstable 
in  all  his  ways,  let  not  that  man  think  that  he 
shall  receive  anything  from  the  Lord.”  Indeed, 
this  is  the  very  kind  of  man  for  whom  we  have 
no  use  ourselves,  in  the  most  common  scenes  of 
life;  those  who  are  ever  halting  by  the  way,  who 
have  not  the  courage  of  their  convictions,  no 
definite  course  of  action;  those  who  have  no  grit 
in  them  to  stand  up  for  what  they  believe  to  be 
right  in  the  face  of  public  opinion;  yes,  we  despise 
them  in  our  hearts,  and  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  “out  with  them”  and  we  as  it  were  “spew 
them  out  of  our  mouth.”  No,  we  don’t  want 
men  that  are  “on  the  fence”  to  do  anything  we  are 
interested  in,  we  want  men  of  positive  action, 
who  say  what  they  mean  and  mean  what  they 
say. 

Now  this  was  the  very  spirit  which  animated 
the  mind  of  St.  John,  he  saw  that  these  men  of 
Laodicea  had  no  definite  purpose  in  their  religion. 
It  was  to  them  an  unmeaning  form,  there  was 
nothing  which  they  really  desired,  in  that  they 
were  quite  content  as  they  were,  they  were  satis¬ 
fied  with  their  present  condition.  The  words 
which  he  puts  in  their  mouth  are  “thou  sayest  I 
am  rich  and  increased  with  goods  and  have  need 
of  nothing.”  Oh,  with  what  a  ruthless  hand 
does  the  Apostle  strip  off  the  mask  and  bid  them 
look  at  themsehes  in  the  mirror  of  God’s  truth  I 
In  the  light  of  eternity,  he  reveals  their  utter 


64 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


blindness  to  their  real  state,  and  the  festering 
rottenness  of  their  fancied  self-sufficiency.  He 
shows  them  that  their  boasted  wealth  was  as 
“moth  and  rust,”  their  “purple  and  fine  linen  were 
as  filthy  rags,  their  wealth  was  poverty,  their 
fulness  was  want,  their  comfort  and  ease,  were 
but  misery  and  wretchedness.  They  were  in 
reality  “poor,  blind,  naked,”  while  all  the  time  he 
showed  them  they  were  standing  at  plenty  s  door, 
food  eternal  was  at  hand  for  their  acceptance, 
for  they  had  been  invited  to  God’s  banquetting 
house,  yet  “like  the  sow  that  was  washed,  they 
had  returned  to  their  wallowing  in  the  mire.’ 

So  the  apostle  would  bid  them  awake  from 
their  fatal  slumber  and  seek  their  fulness  where 
it  might  be  found.  Speaking  as  an  ambassador  of 
Christ,  he  says  “I  commend  thee  to  buy  of  me 
gold  tried  in  the  fire,  that  thou  mayest  be  rich; 
white  raiment  that  thou  mayest  be  clothed,  and 
that  the  shame  of  thy  nakedness  may  not  appear; 
and  anoint  thine  eyes  with  eye  salve,  that  thou 
mayest  see,”  that  is,  be  no  longer  “luke-warm, 
neither  cold  nor  hot,  but  zealous  and  whole¬ 
hearted  and  repent  and  I  will  give  thee  light.” 
The  apostle  goes  on  to  show  them,  that  though 
they  had  erred  from  the  right  way,  though  they 
were  “poor,  blind,  and  naked,”  that  the  door  of 
hope  was  not  closed  to  them,  for  He  reminds 
them  of  the  loving  words  of  the  IVIaster,  Behold, 
I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock;  if  any  man  hear 
my  voice  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in^to 
him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me.” 


Luke -war m  Christians 


6S 


Yes,  the  fulness  is  ever  waiting  whatever  be 
our  sin,  if  we  will  only  turn  seeking  it,  be  it  only 
the  first  earnest  appeal  of  “  Father  I  have  sinned 
against  thee  and  am  no  more  worthy  to  be 
called  thy  son.”  As  we  are  told,  even  when  his 
son  was  “a  great  way  off”  the  Father  ran  towards 
him,  put  His  arms  around  his  neck,  and  kissed 
him,  and  restored  his  sonship,  and  recognized  in 
the  prodigal  a  “son  thatwas  lost,”  butnowfound. 
Yes,  for  the  repentant  sinner,  though  “feeding 
on  husks  the  swine  might  eat,”  there  is  mercy 
and  forgiveness,  but  for  those  who  love  their 
swine  husks  more  than  the  Father’s  House,  for 
the  “luke-warm,  ”  for  the  half-hearted,  for  the 
lip-server;  there  is  naught  but  contempt  and  re¬ 
jection.  God  must  be  first  or  not  at  all. 

All  this  shows  us  the  tyranny  of  love,  and  its 
absolute  nature.  It  suffers  no  rivals.  It  de¬ 
mands  all  or  it  will  have  nothing.  It  claims  heart 
devotion  from  the  object  loved,  luke-warmness 
is  fatal,  so  Christ  says,  “He  that  loveth  not, 
knoweth  not  God,  for  God  is  love.” 

This  is  the  great  truth  that  is  being  brought 
home  to  us  today, — that  is,  the  intensity  of  love; 
for  love  of  home  and  country  is  only  another  form 
of  love  towards  God,  and  it  means  sacrifice  ot 
everything — if  need  be,  of  life  itself.  The  love 
of  truth  and  righteousness,  is  “above  rubies,”  it  is 
“the  pearl  of  great  price,”  that  we  must  be  willing 
to  “sell  all  that  we  have”  to  buy.  “To  him  that 
overcometh,  I  will  grant  to  him  to  sit  down  on 
my  throne,  even  as  I  also  overcame  and  sat  down 


66 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


on  my  Father’s  throne.” 

There  are  perhaps  no  words  of  scripture  more 
searching  than  the  words  of  our  text.  They  bring 
us  face  to  face  with  real  things,  with  the  things 
that  count  in  our  life.  These  are  the  things  that 
are  brought  home  to  us  this  day  as  never  before 
in  the  history  of  the  world. 

The  value  of  the  really  great  things  is  being 
tested,  as  never  before,  in  the  crucible  of  a  world- 
war;  the  dross  is  being  cast  aside;  the  pure  gold 
revealed.  For  as  it  has  been  said,  uwar  is  the 
great  revealer,”  it  shows  men  as  they  really  are, 
not  as  they  appear  in  their  outward  acts  to  men 
and  nations,  it  shows  their  inward  impulses  that 
actuate  their  lives.  The  moral  restraints  that 
influence  us  in  times  of  peace,  are  in  times  of  war 
removed,  show  us  exactly  what  we  are,  so  it  shows 
men  at  their  best  and  at  their  worst.  In  times 
of  peace,  Germany  was  deemed  one  of  the  most 
advanced  nations  of  the  world,  she  was  first  in 
science,  first  in  industrial  skill,  first  in  philosophy, 
and  in  so-called  “culture,”  in  music  and  poetry, 
she  was  certainly  not  behind  other  nations,  while 
her  perfect  organization  was  the  admiration  of 
the  world;  yet  war  has  revealed  her  a  whited 
sepulchre  hiding  the  most  hideous  corruption  of 
lust  and  cruelty  and  treachery  and  revenge..  She 
has  not  scrupled  to  add  to  the  world’s  history, 
new  pages  of  horrors  hitherto  unknown;  she  has, 
in  truth,  revealed  herself  absolutely  inhuman; 
for  as  St.  James  says,  “to  be  set  on  fire  of  Hell, 
being  earthly,  selfish,  devilish.” 


Luke-warm  Christians 


67 


On  the  other  hand,  we  have  seen  nations  that 
were  taunted,  by  their  “cultured”  neighbors  as 
a  nation  of  “shopkeepers,”  given  over  to  com¬ 
fort  and  ease,  and  “muddling”  and  grabbing 
everything  in  sight  in  the  way  of  money  or  terri¬ 
tory,  a  nation  that  had  settled  on  its  lees  and 
had  lost  its  old  time  vigor  of  action  and  strength  of 
moral  purpose.  Yet  we  find  this  same  nation, 
in  time  of  war,  the  wonder  of  the  world  in  her 
mighty  resourcefulness  and  untold  sacrifices  that 
her  people  were  prepared  to  make  for  the  rights 
of  weaker  nations,  and  for  the  rescue  of  the 
fallen  she  was  willing  to  stake  her  all  that  truth 
and  justice  might  remain  to  men,  showing  that 
these  were  really  the  principles  that  governed 
her  life.  Going  across  the  channel,  we  might 
have  seen  what  was  called  “a  nation  of  triflers” 
and  what  appeared  a  frivolous  people,  bent  only 
on  pleasure  and  excitement  and  lacking  in  moral 
courage,  but  in  the  crucible  of  war,  we  find  them 
devoting  themselves  to  heroic  sacrifice  for  the 
defeat  of  tyranny  and  injustice,  and  willing,  to 
the  last  man  or  woman  to  die  for  their  country, 
and  for  the  cause  to  which  they  had  put  their 
hand.  And  what  may  not  be  said  for  our  own 
Canada  and  the  other  colonies  and  our  stalwart 
brothers  of  the  United  States?  Little  did  we 
think  of  the  loyalty  and  courage  that  lay  hidden 
in  the  breasts  of  their  people,  that  generations  to 
come  would  tell  of  their  mighty  deeds  and  heroism 
in  the  hour  of  danger,  of  their  willingness  to  make 
the  great  sacrifice,  if  need  be  to  die  for  the  life  of  men. 


68 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


Thus,  we  see,  though  war  is  in  itself  truly  Hell, 
yet  even  this,  is  better  than  lust  and  brutality 
and  the  despotism  of  war  lords;  for  it  proves  men, 
and  gives  them  opportunity  to  show  what  is  in 
them, — that  they  are  neither  cold  nor  luke-warm, 
when  the  cause  of  Christ  is  at  stake,  and  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  world  hangs  in  the  balance. 

So  today,  in  all  that  welter  of  blood  and  slaugh¬ 
ter  across  the  sea,  you  see  noble  manhood  and 
womanhood  standing  out  in  bold  relief  against 
the  Egyptian  darkness,  not  only  in  individuals, 
but  on  all  sides,  a  mighty  host,  who  are  ready 
to  be  offered,  marching  to  the  front,  each  one 
knowing,  that  if  he  attacks  at  dawn,  that  he  may 
die  before  night,  yet  “not  a  man  dismayed,”  nor 
turning  himself  “back  in  the  day  of  battle.”  Yes, 
God  be  praised,  it  has  been  the  great  searching 
of  the  nations.  So  it  comes  that  the  religious 
spirit,  that  has  sprung  out  of  the  ruins  of  the 
devastated  countries  of  Europe,  is  now  glowing  in 
the  hearts  and  minds  of  our  people,  giving  them 
untold  strength  for  heroism,  and  courage,  and 
sacrifice.  Men  are  discovering,  as  a  brilliant 
novelist  has  just  told  us,  “that  religion  is  the 
first  thing  and  the  last  thing,  and  until  a  man  has 
found  God,  and  has  been  found  by  God,  he  begins 
at  no  beginning  and  he  works  to  no  end.  ” 

So  it  is  that  this  war  has  been  as  an  angel’s 
trump,  saying  to  the  nations  of  the  earth,  “wake 
thou  that  sleepest  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and 
Christ  shall  give  thee  light.  ”  It  has  shown  us  our 
true  state,  that  we  have  been  slumbering  on  our 


Luke-warm  Christians 


69 


watch  tower,  and  so  it  comes  to  us  as  a  great 
opportunity  to  lift  us  out  of  the  pit  of  indifference 
into  which  we  have  fallen,  and  make  us  try  to 
really  accomplish  some  of  those  lofty  ideals  about 
which  we  talk  so  glibly  these  times,  but  about 
which  we,  after  all,  make  so  little  sacrifice  of 
time  or  pleasure.  We  must  realize  more  and 
more  that  not  a  man  nor  woman  amongst  us,  not 
a  soul  so  insignificant,  nor  a  citizen  so  small, 
that  he  cannot  make  a  deep  and  important  con¬ 
tribution  to  the  winning  of  the  cause  to  which 
we  are  pledged. 

It  is  the  commonplace  things  of  life  we  know, 
which  are  of  the  most  importance  at  all  times  but 
especially  at  such  times  as  this  when  waste  and 
indulgence  are  simply  criminal,  and  a  noble  spirit 
of  sacrifice  can  be  shown  at  home,  as  well  as  by 
those  who  go  out  to  the  front  to  make  the  great 

sacrifice,  if  need  be,  of  life. 

But  we  may  say  that  there  is  no  way  that 
Christians  in  general  have  shown  their  luke¬ 
warmness  more  than  in  the  cause  of  missions, 
that  great  cause  that  laid  so  close  to  the  heart 
of  the  Master,  “those  other  sheep”  which  He  bid 
His  Church  to  gather  in.  What,  we  may  ask, 
does  the  cause  of  missions  mean?  It  means  in 
reality,  ourselves ,  for  it  is  only  as  we  give  to  others 
that  we  ourselves  are  blessed.  Missions  and 
spiritual  life  go  hand  in  hand,  they  stand  or  fall 
together,  the  law  of  life  is  giving  and  receiving, 
we  must  give  if  we  would  get.  As  the  world  has 

o  place  for  half-hearted  men,  so  God  has  no 


70 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


place  for  the  luke-warm.  These  are  the  greatest 
hindrances  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the  world 
today. 

It  is  not  the  open  transgressor  whose  evil  life 
is  known  to  all  men  that  works  the  most  evil,  in 
that  his  sin  bears  its  own  condemnation,  it  is  the 
weak-kneed,  half-hearted,  double-serviced,  the 
good-lord,  good-devil,  sort  of  men  and  women, 
that  are  afraid  to  confess  themselves  altogether 
Christians. 

What  the  Church  is  crying  for  today,  so  sorely 
needs  in  this  hour  of  peril  when  the  very  founda¬ 
tions  of  the  earth  are  being  moved,  is  men  and 
women  who  have  the  courage  of  their  convictions, 
men  who  like  our  soldiers  are  ready  for  sacrifice, 
for  wherever  there  is  true  life,  there  is  fulness  and 
progress,  there  is  a  consuming  ambition  for  greater 
things. 

But  how  little  of  this  do  we  see  in  our  lives? 
We  have  let  Christianity  appear  to  be  a  selfish 
religion,  practised  only  for  ease  and  comfort  in 
the  next  world  without  sacrifice  in  this. 

Selfishness  is  the  devil’s  hall-mark.  In  direct 
proportion  to  the  extent  that  self  is  present, 
Christ  is  absent.  As  Christ  gave  Himself  for  us, 
so  must  we  give  ourselves  for  others  in  Him. 

God  in  the  person  of  His  Son,  became  Incarnate 
and  took  our  nature  upon  Him,  so  that  His  life 
might  be  ours,  and  we  might  follow  Him  who  was 
THE  WAY. 


VIII 


THE  TRUE  STRENGTH  OF  A  NATION  ' 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any 
people. 


prov.  xiv,  34 


CAUSE  and  effect  are  two  things  that  are  in¬ 
separably  joined  and  cannot  be  put  asunder. 
They  belong  to  one  another  as  the  day  belongs 
to  the  night,  and  are  the  fixed  sequents  of  each 
other.  Our  whole  life  is  governed  on  this  prin¬ 
ciple.  Harvests  of  whatsoever  nature,  depend 
on  the  sowing,  we  “do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns, 
or  figs  of  thistles.”  So,  too,  is  it  with  the  law  of 
increase,  this  law  is  written  large  and  plain,  in  the 
penalty  that  comes  to  individuals,  as  well  as 
nations. 

Think,  for  instance,  of  Russia  today.  For  a 
century  she  had  denied  liberty  of  thought  and 
freedom  of  speech  to  her  people,  she  had  kept 
them  in  ignorance,  and  men  were  steadily  exiled 
for  daring  to  teach  the  people  to  read  and  think 
for  themselves.  The  ruling  powers  of  this  vast 
country  gave  but  ignorance  and  superstition  to 
its  people;  who  are  now,  therefore,  true  to  the 

71 


72 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


law  of  increase — giving  back  riot  and  bloodshed. 
So,  too,  the  Czar  and  his  autocrats  administered 
cruelty  and  harshness,  and  so  had  returned  by 
the  same  law,  hatred  and  revenge,  till  at  length 
they  found  that  the  prison  walls  of  Siberia  en¬ 
closed  the  hotbeds  of  revolution  and  the  seeds  of 
anarchy  and  bloodshed.  Today  it  has  burst  out 
in  open  violence,  to  sweep  out  of  existence,  the 
system  of  tyranny  which  has  perpetuated  such 
darkness  and  suffering.  Thus  we  see  that  Russia 
is  reaping  of  her  own  sowing  in  the  maddened 
uprising  of  her  people,  in  the  overthrow  of  her 
ruling  princes,  and  in  the  exile  of  her  Emperor. 

Indeed,  her  latest  revolution  is  an  open  testi¬ 
mony  to  the  law  of  which  we  have  spoken,  it  is 
the  increase  of  a  continuous  reign  of  misrule  and 
injustice.  Political  corruption,  greed,  and  brib¬ 
ery,  were  openly  employed;  assassination  was 
made  to  take  the  place  of  justice,  and  oppression, 
of  equal  rights;  so  that  the  whole  government  of 
the  country  was  in  the  hands  of  private  com¬ 
bines  and  wholesale  plunderers,  who  robbed  the 
treasuries  of  the  country  to  add  to  their  own  gain. 
No  wonder  that  the  bells  rang  with  joy  at  the 
advent  of  the  co-called  “New  Regime.” 

Now  the  great  question  that  comes  to  us  at  this 
hour,  is,  “Has  the  history  of  this  nation  no  word 
of  warning  for  us?”  For  we  too,  most  surely, 
must  reap  as  we  have  sown.  We  may  say  that 
the  whole  world  realizes  that  Canada  occupies  a 
wonderful  vantage  ground  in  the  history  of  na¬ 
tions.  It  may  be  said  that  never  before  have 


The  True  Strength  of  a  Nation 


73 


greater  possibilities  been  set  before  a  people.  She 
has  reached  a  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  men,— the 
great  establisher  of  nations,  in  her  hands  possibili¬ 
ties  of  material  enlargement,  hitherto  unknown. 
Thus  we  see  that  Canada  has  reached  a  very 
critical  moment  in  her  political  and  material 
history,  as  we  have  said,  the  eyes  of  the  whole 
world  are  resting  upon  her  and  watching  her 
progress  as  a  nation  builder,  whether  her  people 
shall  prove  themselves  patriots  or  traitors. 
Whether  Canada  shall  show  to  the  world  that  she 
is  a  nation  that  fears  God  and  loves  righteousness, 
or  is  a  poor  mean,  selfish  mob,  that  sees  nothing 
but  what  it  blindly  believes  is  its  own  interest,  and 
is  willing  to  accept  peace  at  any  price  and  under 
any  conditions. 

Hence  we  may  say  that  the  very  life  as  a  nation 
is  at  stake  this  day,  and  in  one  sense  is  being 
moulded  by  us,  its  future  is  largely  in  our  hands, 
for  it  is  realized,  as  we  have  said,  that  she  is  lay¬ 
ing  the  foundations  of  that  which  under  God  is 
destined  to  be  one  of  the  largest  and  most  in¬ 
fluential  nations  of  the  earth.  Indeed,  it  was 
said  a  short  time  ago  by  one  of  the  first  statesmen 
of  England  that  he  believed  that  a  lapse  of  fifty 
years  would  find  Canada,  the  virtual  centre  of 
British  Dominions.  The  greatness  of  our  task 
may  show  the  deep  need,  there  is  for  Canada 
and  her  people  to  realize,  especially  at  this  time, 
the  greater  elements  that  combine  to  give  strength 
to  a  nation.  What  then,  we  may  ask  is  her  great 
need?  Now  in  seeking  an  answer  to  this  ques~ 


74 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


tion,  it  may  be  well  for  us  to  consider  what  has 
led  to  the  wreck  of  nations  in  the  past?  Well, 
at  this  present  time,  we  have  before  us  object 
lessons  that  may  enable  us,  in  part,  to  answer 
this  question.  Spain  and  Portugal,  for  instance, 
were  at  one  time  among  the  foremost  nations  of 
the  earth,  “their  silver  and  their  gold  was  multi¬ 
plied/’  their  ships  were  found  on  every  sea,  they 
were  among  the  richest  in  colonial  possessions. 
They  were  victorious  by  sea  and  land.  They 
left  the  records  of  their  conquering  might  in  al¬ 
most  every  corner  of  the  earth.  Yet  if  we  look  to 
these  nations  today,  we  find  that  their  glory  has 
departed  from  them,  they  have  fallen  in  the  race, 
their  countries  are  but  hotbeds  of  anarchy  and 
violence  and  the  home  of  tyranny  and  misgovern- 
ment.  Cruelty  and  bloodshed  are  made  to  take 
the  place  of  justice  and  fair  dealing.  It  is  openly 
confessed  that  at  least  from  a  moral  standpoint 
almost  the  whole  great  Latin  race,  which  formed 
at  one  time  the  most  powerful  race  that  ever 
existed,  is  today  practically  dead.  If  we  seek  for 
the  cause  of  the  downfall  of  this  renowned  race, 
we  believe  we  find  it,  first,  in  the  greed,  tyranny 
and  injustice  of  its  ecclesiastical  and  political 
rulers  who  first  kept  it  in  ignorance,  then  burdened 
it  with  unjust  taxation,  and  finally  crushed  its 
life  by  denying  it  individual  freedom,  the  liberties 
of  a  free  people,  and  the  rights  of  an  honest 
citizenship.  The  result  of  this  unjust  oppression 
was  to  crush  the  mental  and  moral  growth  of  the 
people,  and  to  engender  in  them  a  spirit  of  an- 


The  True  Strength  of  a  Nation 


75 


archy  and  rebellion,  bringing  about  the  present 
overthrow  of  the  temporal  and  spiritual  powers, 
which  in  the  end  we  believe  will  lead  to  the  final 
divorce  of  the  people  from  both  Church  and 
state.  We  may  have  some  ideal  of  the  ignorance 
of  the  common  people,  the  criminal  neglect  of  the 
cause  of  education  in  these  two  countries  when 
we  are  told  that  in  Spain  with  a  population  of  over 
16,000,000  only  2,000,000  can  read  or  write,  while 
in  Portugal  eighty-seven  per  cent  are  in  the  same 
condition.  Can  we  wonder  that  this  oppressed 
and  down-trodden  people  have  risen  in  revolt 
at  the  tyranny  of  their  old  time  oppressors  and 
have  proclaimed  war  to  the  knife,  against  church 
and  throne? 

What  then  is  the  lesson  we  draw  from  the 
practical  wrecks  of  these  nations  which  at  one 
time  were  so  renowned  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth?  Why,  in  the  first  place,  let  us  learn  of 
the  priceless  value  of  freedom,  which  means 
liberty  of  thought,  liberty  of  speech,  liberty  to 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  every 
man’s  conscience.  Next  we  learn  the  absolute 
need  of  education.  Our  religious  secular  educa¬ 
tion  must  ever  hold  the  first  position  in  the  minds 
of  our  people,  for  it  is  true  today  as  it  ever  has 
been  that  “the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom.”  We  must  never  forget  that  we  may  live 
and  grow  and  develop  as  a  nation,  without  cruisers 
or  aircrafts  or  dreadnaughts.  Yes,  even  without 
millionaires,  and  indeed  we  hope  to  see  the  day 
when  a  multi-millionaire  will  be  impossible,  but 


76 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


if  we  would  build  up  our  nation  on  a  permanent 
foundation,  its  great  corner  stone  must  be  the 
educational  and  religious  culture  of  our  people. 
For  we  must  remember  that  after  all  that  is  said, 
or  can  be  said  about  the  establishment  of  a  state, 
or  the  building  up  of  a  people,  there  is  only  one 
foundation  that  cannot  be  moved  with  regard  to 
any  work,  whether  of  a  nation  or  an  individual, 
and  that  is  faith  in  God ,  which  the  whole  world 
is  learning  this  day  as  never  before.  This  is  the 
only  thing  that  can  bind  us  together  and  hold  us 
secure,  and  we  may  say  that  the  main  use  and 
purpose  of  secular  education  is  to  so  develop 
our  mind  as  to  enable  men  to  trace  out  more 
fully  the  wonder  of  God’s  law  and  the  ways  of 
His  working.  St.  Paul  warns  his  son  Timothy, 
with  a  warning  that  never  should  be  forgotten, 
when  he  tells  him  that  “the  love  of  money  is  the 
root  of  all  evil,”  for  it  has  been  on  this  rock  that 
nation  after  nation  has  fallen.  The  most  subtle 
deceit  and  cruel  lie  that  the  devil  ever  wedged 
into  a  human  heart,  is  that  material  possession 
can  give  security  or  permanent  strength  to  a 
people  or  to  a  nation.  When  the  great  Satrap 
of  old  set  up  his  image  of  gold  on  the  plains  of 
Dura  before  which  he  bid  “all  kingdoms,  nations 
and  languages”  bow  the  knee,  he  was  but  giving 
dramatic  expression  to  an  insanity  that  is  as  old 
as  the  race,  the  worship  of  materialism  or  that 
which  in  some  form  or  other  represents  money. 

Thus  it  is  that  materialism  spells  the  doom  of 
any  people  as  is  abundantly  proved  in  the  awful 


77 


The  True  Strength  of  a  Nation 


catastrophe  which  has  fallen  upon  the  whole 
world  this  day.  In  the  case  of  Germany,  we  see 
the  moral  iniquity  to  which  it  leads  when  it  is 
made  the  idol  of  a  people.  She  had  made  it  the 
leading  thought  of  her  present  generation.  She 
had  set  up  the  golden  image  of  might  before  the 
eyes  of  the  world  to  which  she  would  make  all 
nations  bow  the  knee.  In  the  furtherance  of  her 
insolent  designs,  she  has  sunk  to  the  lowest 
degradation.  In  outraging  every  law  of  God 
or  man,  she  has  aroused  the  moral  indignation  of 
the  whole  world  in  such  a  way  as  to  call  forth  the 
most  splendid  response  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen  in  all  its  history.  It  is  here  that  we  find  the 
first  note  of  our  thanksgiving  today,  our  thanks¬ 
giving  for  material  blessings,  is  we  may  be  over¬ 
shadowed  by  something  that  is  higher  than  earth. 
Yes,  the  circle  of  our  thanksgiving  takes  a  larger 
sweep  and  we  thank  Him  not  only  for  our  daily 
bread  for  the  year  that  is  past,  but  for  the  count¬ 
less  evidences  of  His  Almighty  Hand  in  furthering 
our  cause  and  in  giving  our  arms  success  and 
inspiring  our  troops  with  that  spirit  of  heroism 
which  is  a  household  word  in  every  land. 

We  may  believe  that  the  three  years  of  this  war 
ha\e  done  more  for  the  establishment  of  Canada 
than  a  hundred  years  of  her  history;  the  story  of 
these  years,  it  is  true,  was  written  in  blood;  but 
Ah!  my  friends,  they  will  turn  to  letters  of  gold 
when  the  name  of  Canada  is  mentioned  by  the 
generations  that  follow  us.  Yes,  Canada  has 


78 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


soaked  the  soil  of  Flanders  with  the  blood  of  her 
sons,  yet  in  this  glorious  sacrifice  she  has  proved 
herself  a  nation  that  fears  God  and  loves  righteous¬ 
ness  and  believes  that  it  is  better  to  die  and  be 
free,  than  to  live  and  be  a  slave. 

With  heart  and  voice  we  may  thank  God  this 
day  that  He  has  breathed  His  spirit  into  so  many 
hearts  to  fight  His  battles  for  truth  and  liberty, 
and  to  overthrow  those  powers  of  darkness  that 
would  enslave  the  world.  Our  heartfelt  thanks¬ 
giving  goes  out  today  not  only  for  God’s  con¬ 
tinued  mercies  during  these  trying  times  in 
supplying  our  temporal  needs,  but  more  especially 
for  His  spiritual  blessings  seen  in  the  loyalty  and 
devotion  of  our  brave  defenders  in  this  awful 
strife.  It  was  a  day  of  peril  and  of  darkness, 
the  enemy  had  set  in  upon  us  like  a  flood,  and  it 
was  surely  of  the  Lord’s  mercies  we  were  not 
consumed.  We  believe  that  the  victory  will  be 
ours  because  it  is,  we  believe,  the  Lord’s  battle. 
Right  and  might  are  drawn  up  in  battle  array, 
right  must  win. 

We  are  living  in  the  midst  of  the  world’s  con¬ 
vulsion,  destined  to  set  the  course  of  the  world’s 
history  for  centuries  to  come.  It  is  indeed  the 
hour  of  destiny  for  the  world,  for  the  nations,  for 
the  Church;  yet  in  the  midst  of  all  the  peril  and 
bloodshed,  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  foot¬ 
prints  of  the  Son  of  Man.  Not  if  we  look  only 
upon  the  outward  aspect  of  the  war  and  see  only 
the  blood  and  the  misery  and  the  cruelty  and 
the  barbarism,  and  hear  only  the  boom  and 


The  True  Strength  of  a  Nation 


79 


terror  of  the  guns;  but  if  we  look  deeper  and  see 
the  noble  sacrifices  that  are  made  for  the  princi¬ 
ples  of  our  holy  faith,  see  the  unshrinking  heroism 
of  those  who  fight,  we  may  be  well  assured 
that  this  is  essentially  a  great  spiritual  conflict. 
On  one  side  we  see  the  last  and  the  strongest 
effort  yet  made  in  the  history  of  men  for  the 
establishment  of  the  old  pagan  idea  of  holding 
dominion  by  sword  and  spear,  and  on  the  other, 
a  world-wide  league  of  free  people  banded  together 
for  the  crushing  out  of  this  adder’s  poison  and  the 
establishing  a  world-wide  dominion  of  love  and 
brotherhood  in  which  truth  and  justice  must 
reign  supreme.  Already  we  can  see  signs  of  its 
coming  by  men’s  being  drawn  into  one  common 
struggle,  shedding  their  blood  for  a  common 
cause,  and  giving  their  lives  for  the  same  undying 
principles.  It  is  for  these  things  we  thank  God 
this  day  that  He  is  leading  the  whole  world  to 
recognize  the  sanctity  of  His  laws,  and  that  it  is 
righteousness  only  that  exalteth  a  nation,  and 
that  service  and  sacrifice  are  the  only  things  that 
count  in  estimating  the  worth  of  men  and  the 
wealth  of  nations. 


IX 


THE  HOME  BASE  AND  ITS  DUTIES 


As  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the 
be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff. 


battle ,  so  shall  his  part 
i  sam.  xxx,  24 


THE  event  to  which  our  text  refers  was  a 
scene  in  the  life  of  David,  when  he  went 
forth  to  battle  against  the  Amalekites  who 
had  burned  the  cities  of  Judah  and  had  taken 
many  captives,  among  whom  were  members  of 
his  own  household.  With  a  little  band  of  six 
hundred  men,  he  set  out  in  pursuit  of  the  con¬ 
quering  hosts,  but  on  coming  to  the  mountain 
gorge  of  the  river  Besor,  it  was  found,  that  two 
hundred  of  his  men  were  so  wearied  from  the 
burden  of  the  way,  that  they  were  unable  to  ford 
the  rapid  waters  and  were  therefore  left  behind 
to  guard  the  tents,  while  David,  with  his  four 
hundred  men  pressed  on  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy, 
and  not  only  overtook  them  and  slew  them  with  a 
great  slaughter,  but  recovered  all  the  captives 
with  a  vast  amount  of  treasure. 

On  their  return  home  from  their  great  victory, 
there  came  up  the  question  of  the  division  of  the 
spoil,  it  was  held  by  some,  that  they  only  who  had 
done  the  fighting  should  be  partakers,  that  to  the 

80 


The  Home  Base  and  its  Duties 


81 


victors  belong  the  spoils,  but  the  generous,  noble 
heart  of  .David  would  not  permit  him  to  admit 
of  this  injustice.  He  maintained,  that  those  who 
remained  behind,  were  victors  in  will  if  not  in 
deed,  in  that  it  was  not  cowardice  but  inability 
which  prevented  them  from  being  in  the  ranks  of 
war.  In  wish  and  desire  they  had  been  present. 
They  had  done  their  part  in  guarding  the  stuff 
and  protecting  the  home  base.  Wherefore,  David 
issued  his  command  that  there  should  be  no  dis¬ 
tinction  in  the  way  of  honor  and  so  when  he 
came  to  the  two  hundred  who  remained  behind, 
he.  saluted  them  also  as  victors  and  laid  down  a 
principle  of  battle  which  forever  after  became  a 
law  in  Israel, — “the  part  of  him  that  goeth  to  the 
battle,  so  shall  his  part  be,  that  remaineth  at  the 
stuff,  they  shall  share  alike.” 

The  words  of  David  of  old  seem  to  have  a 
special  fitness  for  us  today.  The  first  shock  and 
panic  of  this  most  unrighteous  war  have  passed 
to  a  sense  of  rigid  endurance.  The  first  flame  of 
loyalty  and  enthusiasm  that  sped  our  valiant  sons 
to  the.  rescue  of  the  downtrodden,  has  settled 
down  into  the  steady  fire  of  the  nation’s  wrath. 
It  has  called  forth  its  whole  strength,  they  have 
counted  out  the  bitter  cost  and  struggle  necessary 
and  mean  to  fight  it  through  to  the  end,  come 
what  may.  There  never  has  been  such  an  assem¬ 
blage  of  forces  brought  face  to  face  in  the  history 
of  men,  nor  has  there  ever  been  such  a  wide¬ 
spread  unity  of  thought  and  action  throughout 
the  wide  earth  concerning  the  vast  issues  that 
are  at  stake  and  the  importance  of  the  victory. 


82 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


In  the  great  battle  for  the  faith  in  ages  past,  the 
great  war  cry  was  “Athanasius  against  the  world, 
but  the  battle  which  is  now  raging  to  maintain 
the  truth  of  the  Christian  faith  is  practically 
“Germany  against  the  world.”  She  has  thrown 
down  the  gauntlet  of  defiance  before  the  most 
powerful  nations  of  the  world,  in  her  determined 
effort  to  enforce  the  principle  of  her  pagan  rule 
over  the  people  of  the  earth.  Germany  by  her 
open  confession  is  fighting  to  establish  the  valid¬ 
ity  and  permanence  of  the  doctrine  that  Might 
is  right.”  Might  she  asserts  is  the  supreme 
right,  and  the  dispute  as  to  what  is  right,  is  to  be 
decided  always  by  the  arbitrament  of  war.  The 
weak  must  go  to  the  wall  and  be  crushed,  under 
the  heel  of  power.  Among  all  political  sins  she 
tells  us,  the  sin  of  feebleness  is  the  most  con¬ 
temptible.  In  the  words  of  the  Kaiser  himse  , 
he  declares  that  “only  one  is  master  of  this 
country,  and  that  is  I.  Who  opposes  me  I  will 
crush  to  pieces,  so  I  command.  We  Hohenzol- 
lerns  take  our  crown  from  God  alone,  and  to 
God  alone  we  are  responsible;  so  he  says  the  wish 
of  the  king  is  the  one  supreme  law.”  The  great 
Bismarck  asserted  that  “with  us  there.is  no  sover¬ 
eign  will  but  that  of  the  king.  It  is  he  alone 
who  wills,  because  he  alone  has  the  right  to  do 
so.  ”  The  leading  minds  who  govern  the  thoughts 
of  the  ruling  class  in  Germany  today,  assert  that 
the  humanitarianism  of  the  gospel  is  naught  but 
senile  weakness,  vague  idealism  and  irrational 
sentimentality;  that  the  Christ  idea  of  philan- 


The  Home  Base  and  its  Duties 


83 


thropy  and  brotherly  love,  under  which  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  work,  must  be  stamped  out  with  all 
energy. 

Here  are  the  issues  that  are  at  stake  today, 
against  which  we  fight  and  it  will  take  but  little 
thought  to  tell  us,  in  spite  of  all  the  Christian 
profession  of  the  German  people,  that  nothing 
could  be  more  definitely  opposed  to  the  principles 
of  Christ  who  proclaimed  the  blessedness  of  the 
weak  and  bade  us  love  our  enemies  and  dwell  in 
peace  with  all  men,  and  that  “he  who  loveth  not 
his  brother  abideth  in  death.  ”  We  see,  therefore, 
that  the  principle  of  the  German  rule  is  pure 
paganism  and  under  it  the  world  would  revert  to  a 
state  of  barbarism.  They  are  proving  this  by 
their  inhuman  acts  this  day.  Should  not  we 
then  that  are  at  the  home  base,  or  as  our  text  says, 
“abide  with  the  stuff”  do  our  part  in  this  great 
struggle  for  truth  and  righteousness?  Should  we 
not  lift  up  our  continual  prayer  for  this  great 
triumph  of  right?  For  we  do  most  surely  believe 
that  there  is  a  power  not  of  ourselves  that  makes 
for  righteousness  in  shaping  and  controlling  the 
evolution  of  the  human  race  for  some  great  end 
not  revealed  as  yet.  Our  destiny  is  in  His  hands. 
He  can  bring  good  out  of  evil.  We  are  therefore 
convinced  that  He  in  His  own  way  is  working  out 
His  purposes  in  this  hideous  carnage  and  in  the 
future  will  make  clear  His  purpose  and  will  give 
us  new  life  through  this  terrible  baptism  of  blood. 
Yet  although  we  do  surely  believe  this  to  be  true, 
this  does  not  relieve  us  from  personal  responsi- 


84 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


bility,  we  who  “abide  by  the  stuff. ”  The  ques¬ 
tion  is,  what  can  we  do?  For  we  must  remember 
that  we  too  are  like  them  of  old  time,  sworn 
soldiers  and  stand  in  the  rank  and  file  of  God’s 
great  army.  We  must  put  on  our  whole  armor. 
We  do  not  realize  as  we  ought,  that  the  most 
effectual  of  all  weapons  are  spiritual  weapons.  A 
most  wonderful  illustration  of  this  is  the  instance 
given  in  the  chapter  from  which  our  text  is  taken. 
The  resistless  hosts  of  Amalek  had  swept  through 
the  coastsof  Judah,  as theGerman  hordes  through 
Belgium,  bringing  destruction  with  fire  and 
sword  and  had  taken  unlimited  plunder.  The 
heart  of  the  people  had  waxed  faint.  Fear  and 
terror  had  taken  hold  of  them,  for  what  were  David 
and  his  four  hundred  men  as  opposed  to  the  mighty 
hosts  of  Amalek?  But  David  knew  assuredly 
what  we  often  forget;  the  source  of  his  strength. 
Therefore,  before  going  into  battle  he  put  him¬ 
self  into  God’s  hands  and  asked  for  guidance  in 
fervent  prayer.  God  said  to  him,  “pursue  and 
thou  shalt  overtake  and  conquer  him  and  recover 
all  that  he  hath  taken.”  Yes,  “if  God  be  on  our 
side  we  will  not  fear  what  man  can  do  unto  us.” 
And  we  have  this  to  comfort  us  and  give  us  con¬ 
fidence  in  our  petitions,  in  that  there  never  was 
a  war  in  which  we  could  so  confidently  feel  that 
we  are  fighting  for  a  righteous  cause.  This,  we 
may  say,  is  the  unanimous  conviction  of  the 
civilized  world,  of  which  Germany  is  no  longer  a 
part. 

Since  right  must  in  the  end  conquer,  it  is  our 


The  Home  Base  and  its  Duties 


85 


prayer  that  God  may  be  pleased  to  “stretch  forth 
His  hand  to  be  our  defence  against  all  our  ene¬ 
mies,”  and  grant  us  His  peace,  for  we  must 
remember  that  it  is  only  His  peace  that  can  be 
permanent.  There  might  be  a  peace,  a .  mere 
cessation  of  hostilities,  the  hatchet  of  discord 
among  the  nations,  might  be  for  the  time  buried, 
and  the  world’s  peace  be  as  distant  as. ever.  So 
long  as  the  pagan  curse  of  militarism  is  allowed 
to  exist,  so  long  as  the  barbaric  rule  of  might 
against  right  is  a  nation’s  law,  so  long  as  tyranny 
and  oppression  and  the  oligarchy  of  emperors 
and  war  lords  is  recognized  amongst  men;  so  long 
will  men  bite  and  devour  one  another,  so  long 
will  our  peaceful  valleys  be  drenched  with  the 
blood  of  the  slain,  so  long  will  the  cry  of  the  widow 
and  the  orphan  be  heard  pleading  to  heaven  for 
vengeance  for  man’s  sin.  We  see,  therefore,  if  we 
would  have  peace  we  can  only  have  it  in  one  way 
by  making  the  world  ready  for  peace.  We  can 
have  peace  only  in  exact  proportion  to  the  extent 
we  can  remove  from  the  minds  and  thoughts  of 
men,  the  moving  causes,  the  unchristian  principles 
which  called  forth  this  war.  In  a  word,  there 
can  be  no  possible  peace,  so  long  as  Germany  is 
Germany;  for  by  her  own  confession,  she  exists 
only  by  making  war. 

It  may  be  that  we  ourselves  are  not.  ready  for 
peace  and  that  God  will  need  yet  again  to  send 
“his  sore  judgments  “upon  us  before  we  can  learn 
our  need  of  righteousness  as  a  nation.  So  before 
we  cast  the  stone  at  Germany,  let  us  think  about 


i 


86 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


ourselves.  How  often  do  we  and  our  people  act 
on  the  principle  that  might  is  right?  How  often 
do  we  push  with  the  shoulder  of  oppression  and 
make  the  weak  take  the  wall?  How  often  do  we 
bite  and  devour  one  another  with  hard  speeches 
and  bitter  words?  How  often  is  “the  devil  take 
hindmost,”  the  principle  of  our  action? 

So  we  see  that  if  we  who  “tarry  by  the  'fetuff” 
would  pray  for  peace,  we  must  first  pray  for  our¬ 
selves  that  God  would  be  pleased  to  prepare  us 
for  peace,  that  He  would  drive  out  from  us,  wrath 
and  anger  and  evil-speaking  and  pride  and  selfish¬ 
ness  and  intolerance,  and  give  us  instead  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  the  spirit  of  love  and  brother¬ 
hood  and  sympathy  for  all  men.  For  it  is  mani¬ 
festly  an  act  of  impiety  and  a  profanation  of  the 
sacred  office  of  prayer,  to  pray  for  peace  and 
happiness,  and  still  to  continue  the  habits  and 
practices  which  make  peace  and  happiness  im¬ 
possible.  So  we  see  that  it  is  a  sort  of  blasphemy 
to  ask  for  peace,  unless  we  make  every  effort  to 
put  hatred  and  greed  out  of  the  world.  Ora  et 
labora  is  a  sacred  maxim  of  the  church.  Unless 
we  follow  up  our  prayer  by  our  individual  help  in 
promoting  peace,  we  are  but  mocking  God,  who 
alone  can  give  us  peace.  Hence  we  see  that  it  is 
both  idle  and  profane  to  pray  for  peace  unless  we 
work  for  it,  and  we  do  not  work  for  it  while  we 
remain  inactive  and  satisfy  ourselves  by  express¬ 
ing  in  a  religious  way  a  desire  that  it  may  come. 
Peace  cannot  come  till  there  is  justice  and  fair 
dealing  amongst  the  nations.  Its  primary  im- 


The  Home  Base  and  Its  Duties 


8  7 


portance  must  be  elevated  before  the.  eyes  of 
men,  till  it  becomes  the  ideal  of  the  nations,  and 
so  at  length  it  will  be  demanded  by  the  united 
voice  of  men.  Then  and  then  only  will  it  come, 
and  it  will  not  only  come,  but  it  will  stay  and 
God’s  blessing  will  rest  upon  the  earth.  Men 
will  “beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares  and 
their  spears  into  pruning  hooks,  neither  shall 
they  learn  war  any  more  for  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord  hath  spoken  it.” 


X 


GOD  AND  BAAL 

If  the  Lord  he  God ,  follow  Him;  if  Baal,  follow  him. 

I  KINGS  XVIII,  21 

THE  words  of  our  text  refer  to  the  great  de¬ 
fection  of  God’s  people,  under  Ahab,  the 
apostate  King  of  Israel,  in  the  days  of  the 
prophet  Elijah,  for  as  he  tells  us,  “the  children  of 
Israel  have  forsaken  Thy  covenant,  thrown  down 
Thine  altars,  and  slain  Thy  prophets  with  the 
sword,  while  I  only  am  left”  to  contend  the  hosts 
of  Baal.  But  the  time  of  judgment  was  near,  a 
great  crisis  was  approaching,  when  a  choice  had 
to  be  made  between  the  seen  and  the  unseen.  The 
influences  of  the  seen  were  looming  large  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people,  the  worshippers  of  Baal  were 
represented  by  a  great  body  of  four  hundred  and 
fifty  priests  or  teachers,  while  Elijah  himself  was 
the  only  prophet  and  teacher  of  the  power  and 
influence  of  the  Unseen,  without  any  power  or 
influence  of  earth,  without  any  protection  from 
the  hate  or  malice  of  his  enemies.  Yet  though 
he  stood  absolutely  alone  in  the  majesty  of  his 
great  position,  he  boldly  threw  down  the  gauntlet 
of  his  defiance  before  the  the  King  and  the  assem¬ 
bled  hosts  of  Baal,  he  challenged  them  to  open 

88 


God  and  Baal 


89 


combat,  he  dared  them  to  enter  the  lists  with  him, 
single  handed  and  defenceless  as  he  was.  Nor 
was  his  power  overestimated,  though  the  four 
hundred  and  fifty  priests  of  Baal  “cried  aloud 
from  morning  until  noon,”  though  they  cut 
themselves  with  knives  and  lances  after  their 
manner  in  their  insane  fury, “there  was  neither 
voice  nor  hearing  nor  any  that  answered,”  while 
the  victory  of  the  prophet  was  complete  and  final. 

This  astounding  effect  of  spiritual  power  was 
the  answer  given  to  the  challenge  found  in  our 
text  thrown  down  before  the  mammon-worship¬ 
pers  of  his  day  by  the  prophet  of  old.  But  the  need 
of  this  warning  was  not  confined  to  his  day,  for 
it  is  always  needed.  Indeed,  there  is  nothing  that 
God’s  people  need  at  this  hour  more  than  this 
self-same  challenge.  If  the  Lord  be  God,  follow 
Him;  for  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
Christian  Church  is  this  day  being  weighed  in 
the  balances,  as  never  before  in  history.  She 
has  been  practically  shoved  into  a  corner,  and 
her  fundamental  principles,  are  pronounced  out¬ 
classed  and  outworn  and  out  of  harmony  with  the 
best  interests  of  men.  Yes,  the  distinctive  prin¬ 
ciples  on  which  the  Christian  Church  has  been 
founded,  and  which  its  great  founder  asserted  to 
to  be  the  necessary  elements  of  its  life  and  power 
have  been  (by  one  of  the  most  powerful  institu¬ 
tions  of  the  world)  set  at  naught  and  scoffed  at, 
as  indications  of  puerile  weakness,  and  not  only 
foolish,  but  absolutely  immoral  and  wholly  un¬ 
worthy  the  ambitions  of  the  human  race.  We 


1 


90 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


are  told,  by  these  would-be  teachers  that  it  was 
said  in  old  time  “  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth,”  but  I  say  unto  you 
“Blessed  are  the  valiant,  for  they  shall  make  the 
earth  their  throne.”  Ye  have  heard  it  said 
“blessed  are  the  peace-makers,”  but  I  say 
unto  you  “Blessed  are  the  war-makers,  for  they 
shall  be  called  the  children  of  the  god  of  war,  who 
is  greater  than  Jehovah.”  This  is  the  gospel  of 
those  who  “sit  in  the  seats  of  the  mighty”  and 
bear  rule  over  the  German  people  today.  This 
new  gospel  that  “might  is  right,  which  has  so 
clearly  shown  itself  in  in  the  ruling  class  in  Ger¬ 
many,  could  not  in  all  reason,  be  made  by  those 
who  still  believe  in  the  God  revealed  by  Jesus 
Christ.  Never  did  the  priests  of  Baal,  even  in  the 
darkest  days  of  Israel,  propound  more  utterly 
Pagan  principles,  more  utterly  subversive  of  the 

whole  teaching  of  Christ. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  whole  civilized  world  has 
some  to  a  great  impasse,  to  the  parting  of  the 
ways,  where  it  is  forced  to  make  a  choice  between 
two  great  principles  of  action,  between^  faith  in 
the  seen  or  in  the  unseen,  between  the  spiritual  and 
the  material  as  the  ground  of  hope  and  confidence 
of  nations.  So  the  old  time  challenge  of  the  an¬ 
cient  prophet  rings  out  once  more.  History  is 
repeating  herself,  and  the  question  asked  by  the 
Christian  today  is  that  of  Elijah  of  old.”  If  the 
Lord  be  God,  follow  Him.”  Pagan  might  was 
never  more  powerfully  represented,  than  by 
Germany  at  this  hour,  for  she  not  only  leads  the 


God  and  Baal 


9* 


world  in  industry,  and  art,  in  science  and  philoso¬ 
phy  and  material  advancement,  but  she  has 
produced  the  most  powerful  military  organiza¬ 
tion,  the  most  complete  system  of  secret  and 
strategic  operation,  combined  with  the  most 
destructive  instruments  of  war,  the  world  ever 
has  seen,  or  indeed  are  possible  to  imagine.  We 
find  in  her,  then,  what  we  may  call  the  perfection 
of  the  material,  the  very  best  that  the  world  of 
today  can  do;  and  that  best  is  this  day,  by  the 
Providence  of  God,  being  placed  in  the  balances, 
we  believe  that  it  is  the  crucial,  if  not  the  final 
struggle  among  the  nations  for  the  supremacy  of 
the  material.  The  seen  and  the  unseen  are  drawn 
up  in  battle  array.  It  is  the  holy  war,  the  veri¬ 
table  Crusade  of  our  day,  by  which  we  would 
deliver  our  beloved  Jerusalem,  the  Christian 
Church  from  the  hands  of  the  infidel  and  the 
Turk,  for  they  have  deluged  our  fields  with  blood, 
have  “thrown  down  our  altars,  and  slain  our 
prophets  with  the  sword.”  Yes,  we  may  believe, 
that  this  awful,  most  sickening  strife,  is  the 
“Armageddon”  of  God,  God’s  scourge  of  the 
world’s  sin,  but  most  especially  the  sin  of  per¬ 
mitting  the  barbarism  of  war. 

For  we  must  remember,  that  this  war  is  between 
professedly  Christian  nations.  Therefore,  so- 
called  Christian  people  must  be  responsible  for  the 
conditions  which  brought  about  this  deadly 
conflict,  and  the  price  of  this  sin  is  now  being 
paid,  and  the  awful  weight  of  the  price  may  tell 
us  the  extent  of  our  transgression.  One  of  our 


92 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


most  glaring  sins,  has  been  the  way  we  have  lied 
about  our  desire  for  peace.  Yes,  we  would  have 
peace  so  long  as  it  did  not  cost  us  anything,  and 
so  long  only ;  for  we  were  not  prepared  to  make  any 
sacrifices  for  it.  Now  God  is  calling  with  trumpet 
tongue  for  those  sacrifices  today.  Oh,  how  the 
cries  of  the  widows  and  the  orphans,  the  “mothers 
that  are  weeping  for  their  children”  rise  up  in 
judgment  against  us  this  day,  because  the  pro¬ 
fessed  children  of  peace  have  labored  only  for 
war.  But  now  God  has  permitted  the  very 
mouth  of  hell  to  be  opened,  in  the  havoc  and  ruin, 
in  the  crime  and  cruelty,  in  the  butchery  and 
slaughter  of  this  hour  to  convince  us  of  our  sin. 
God  has  permitted  the  evil  passions  of  men  to 
work  out  their  own  destruction  by  compelling  the 
nations  who  have  been  forced  into  the  cruel 
assassination  of  this  war  in  order  to  compel  them 
not  only  to  sue  for,  but  demand  peace,  henceforth, 
among  the  nations.  Demand  by  solemn  league 
and  covenant  to  utterly  renounce  the  arbitra¬ 
ment  of  the  sword  in  settling  the  affairs  of  the 
nations.  Should  this  be  the  blessed  result  of 
this  war  and  the  world  through  the  Providence  of 
God  be  prepared  for  the  advent  of  peace,  would 
we  not  be  able  to  look  back  upon  it  with  reverent 
awe,  as  a  divine  struggle  for  righteousness  and  see 
in  it  a  great  turning  point  in  man’s  history?  Aye, 
a  sort  of  resurrection  from  the  dead,  a  rolling  back 
of  the  great  stone  which  lay  at  the  mouth  of  the 
sepulchre  of  materialism  and  setting  free  a  new 
life  for  the  world,  “the  Christ  that  is  lo  be.” 


God  and  Baal 


93 


Then,  surely,  the  heroes  of  our  battlefield  would 
never  die,  for  they  would  be  the  martyrs  of  our 
race,  their  memory  would  be  kept  continuously, 
as  those  who  have  shed  their  blood  in  sacrifice  for 
the  life  of  men,  an  offering  well  pleasing  unto 
God.  Aye,  the  mothers  that  bore  them  could 
thank  God  in  their  tears,  that  He  had  honored 
them  in  those  very  pangs  that  gave  birth  to 
heroes. 

We  may  believe  that  the  blessed  results  of  this 
war  will  be  unending,  for  it  is  not  only  a  holy  war 
for  truth  and  righteousness,  as  we  have  said,  but 
it  is  a  scourge  of  God  which  brings  to  our  vision 
that  ever  memorable  scene  in  the  temple  courts 
and  the  Master  with  the  ruthless  scourge  in  His 
hand  driving  out  the  insolent  profaners.  May 
not  this  war  be  the  scourge  of  God  once  again, 
in  the  hands  of  the  great  messenger  of  peace,  driv¬ 
ing  out  the  profaners  of  His  great  temple  in  the 
world, — driving  out  not  only  the  professed  pagan¬ 
ism  of  Germany,  but  the  unexpressed,  though 
real,  pagan  practices  of  other  nations,  who  are 
called  Christian?  It  was  said  of  God’s  people  of 
old  that  “They  worshipped  the  Lord,  yet  served 
their  own  Gods.”  Of  how  many  can  it  be  said 
of  the  Israel  of  today?  They  do  not  openly  re¬ 
nounce  faith  in  the  unseen,  as  Germany  has,  but 
they  profess  faith  in  God,  faith  in  Christ,  faith  in 
those  divine  agencies  that  are  working  for  the 
welfare  and  unity  of  the  race;  but  yet  they 
“serve  their  own  Gods,”  in  that  “their  heart  goes 
after  their  coveteousness.  ”  Their  real  trust  is 


94 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


not  in  God  after  all;  but,  like  the  German,  in 
material  might,  that  is  in  money,  or  in  what  money 
can  bring.  They  are,  many  of  them,  ready  as 
any  German  to  “shove  with  the  shoulder”  of 
oppression,  push  the  weak  to  the  wall,  and  forget 
the  eternal  law  of  brotherhood.  So  we  see  that  it 
is  not  only  Germany  that  needs  the  avenging 
scourge  of  this  cleansing  war,  it  is  France  and 
Russia,  it  is  England  and  America,  and  last  but 
not  least  it  is  our  own  Canada.  We  too  have 
given  ourselves  in  a  large  degree,  to  forget  the 
real  things  and  worship  the  gods  of  earth,  the 
gods  of  wealth,  of  stocks  and  bonds,  of  eating 
and  drinking,  of  luxury  and  ease,  of  fashion  and 
“purple  and  fine  linen,”  we  have  forgotten  the 
Lazarus  at  our  gates.  May  not  God  by  this 
national  scourge  be  cleansing  His  Temple,  driving 
out  the  lip-servers  of  our  day?  Thus  it  is,  there¬ 
fore,  that  today  He  is  “calling  down  fire  from 
heaven,”  as  in  days  of  old  for  the  destruction  of 
idolatry  in  the  land,  and  the  establishment  of  his 
true  service. 

In  proof  of  this,  may  we  not,  as  we  look  abroad, 
see  a  sort  of  regeneration  already  creeping  over 
the  land?  A  Pentecostal  wave  of  God’s  Holy 
Spirit  entering  into  the  hearts  of  men  through  the 
influence  of  this  war?  Most  markedly  is  this 
seen  in  England.  She  was  awakened  not  only 
from  her  civil  and  social  trifling  and  slumber;  but 
from  her  mental  and  moral  torpor.  England  was 
allowing  herself  to  come  to  be  influenced  by  the 
poisoned  philosophies  of  Germany,  to  adapt  her 


God  and  Baal 


95 


mental  and  spiritual  attitudes  with  regard  to  the 
Christian  faith,  which  led  to  a  widespread  ques¬ 
tioning  of  many  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Christianity.  So,  many  in  her  land  had  become 
lifeless  and  indifferent  to  real  things,  had  given 
themselves  to  “the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of 
the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life,  ”  So,  like  the  prodi¬ 
gal  of  old,  they  deserted  “their  Father’s  House” 
and  spent  their  substance  in  “rioting  and  revel-, 
ry;”  but  when  the  bugle  was  heard,  and  the  trum¬ 
pet  of  battle  was  sounded  and  the  scourge  of  war 
reached  them,  they  too  like  the  prodigal  “came  to 
themselves”  and  realized  that  no  man  could  help 
them  in  their  need,  so  they  came  back  to  their 
Father’s  House”  and  fell  upon  their  knee  with 
the  cry  of  the  prodigal  upon  their  lips.  A  solemn 
hush  of  prayer  brooded  over  the  land,  even  gay 
and  frivolous  France  caught  up  the  cry  for  help, 
and  the  inspiration  of  a  new  life,  in  fighting  for  the 
cause  of  truth  and  righteousness  and  reverence 
for  the  Christian  faith.  Hence  we  see  the  hand  of 
God  leading  the  world  through  this  great  sacrifice 
of  blood  and  treasure  that  it  might  be  cleansed 
from  its  sin  and  restored  to  new  life.  Surely  the 
rolling  sea  of  blood,  whose  rising  tide,  we  may  say, 
laps  the  very  foundations  of  civilization — must 
bear  fruit  in  the  life  of  the  world,  must  humble 
the  proud  arrogance  of  men  and  tell  them  of 
something  that  is  mightier  than  the  sword. 

For  we  believe  that  God  is  offering  to  the  world 
a  great  object  lesson  of  the  instability  of  earthly 
things,  so  plain  that  “he  who  runs  may  read”  and 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


so  bidding  us  choose  that  which  cannot  pass 
away,  helping  us  to  make  our  choice  between  the 
seen  and  the  unseen. 


XI 


LOVE  THY  NEIGHBOUR 

Thou  shall  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 

matt,  xii,  29 

IN  these  days  of  terror  and  bloodshed,  when 
all  the  powers  of  Hell  and  darkness  are  let 
loose,  when  we  may  say  that  the  whole  world 
is  in  battle  array,  when  millions  of  so-called 
Christians  are  meeting  each  other  face  to  face  and 
are  thirsting  for  each  other’s  blood,  it  may  be 
asked,  do  not  the  words  of  our  text  seem  not  only 
as  empty  sounds  but  as  a  bitter  mockery?  For 
where  can  love  and  brotherhood  be  found  amid 
this  awful  carnage  where  the  very  ground  is 
soaked  by  our  brothers’  blood?  It  cannot  be 
wondered  that  this  question  should  cause  diffi¬ 
culty  and  perplexity  to  numbers  of  Christian 
people  for  they  read  in  their  bibles  Christian  pre¬ 
cepts  about  loving  our  enemies,  doing  good  to 
those  that  hate  us.  He  bids  us  to  forgive  our 
enemies  not  only  “seven  times,”  but  to  seventy 
times  seven  “that  He  that  loveth  not  his  brother 
abideth  in  death.”  Yet  in  spite  of  all  this,  we  find 
millions  of  Christian  people  pouring  out  count¬ 
less  millions  of  men  and  money  to  work  out  what 
at  first  sight  seems  the  direct  contrary  of  all  this 

97 


98 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


plain  teaching  of  the  Master,  and  we  are  com¬ 
pelled  to  ask  if  there  can  be  an  answer  to  all  this 
seeming  contradiction?  In  attempting  our  an¬ 
swer,  let  us  think  for  a  moment  what  would  have 
been  the  result  if  England  and  her  noble  allies 
had  obeyed  the  letter  and  not  the  spirit  of  this 
law  and  refused  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  Belgium 
from  the  grinding  tyranny  of  insolent  war  lords. 
They  would  have  come  to  the  level  of  Germany, 
they  would  have  sold  their  birthright  as  a  nation, 
which  is  their  love  of  truth  and  justice  and  equal 
rights  between  man  and  man,  they  would  have 
bowed  the  knee  to  the  Baal  of  brutal  might, 
they  would  have  done  their  part  to  enslave  the 
world,  and  put  the  yoke  of  servitude  upon  their 
own  necks  and  permitted  the  Moloch  of  the 
earth  to  accomplish  his  work  and  dominate  the 
earth. 

We  never  must  forget  those  most  significant 
words  of  the  Master,  “I  came  not  to  send  peace 
on  the  earth,  but  a  sword.”  Nor  yet  that  other 
picture  of  Him  standing  in  the  temple  with  that 
scourge  of  small  cords  in  his  hand  with  which, 
in  righteous  indignation,  he  lashed  those  insolent 
traffickers  that  would  profane  God’s  Holy  Temple 
and  drove  them  as  common  cattle  from  its  sacred 
precincts.  Here,  surely,  is  a  case  in  point.  It  is 
God’s  Holy  Temple  of  truth  and  righteousness 
that  is  being  profaned  this  day  by  the  ruthless 
tread  of  insolent  war  lords  that  would  trample 
underfoot  the  principles  of  the  Christian  faith; 
that  would  barter  truth  for  self  interest  and  make 


99 


Love  Thy  Neighbour 


traffic  of  instincts  which  Christ  has  buried  deep 
in  the  human  heart.  Who  then,  I  ask,  could 
imagine  that  the  cause  of  righteousness  would 
be  served,  or  the  true  interests  of  mankind  were 
advanced  if  we  were  to  refrain  from  resisting  evil 
when  it  attacks  us  in  the  form  of  German  in¬ 
humanity,  or  meekly  turn  “the  other  cheek ”  to 
the  savage  smiting  of  a  worse  than  heathen  Hun? 
Such  a  course,  you  see,  would  be  plainly  disas¬ 
trous  to  the  world  and  civilization.  Yes,  such  a 
policy,  if  generally  pursued,  would  mean  nothing 
less  than  the  wrecking  of  the  higher  life  of  Europe. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  no  man  can  be 
neutral  today  and  save  his  honor.  He  must,  in 
heart  and  will,  be  an  active  combatant  or  a  traitor 
to  his  country.  The  pacificist  is  a  shirker,  how¬ 
ever  he  may  try  to  hide  his  contemptible  spirit 
under  the  cloak  of  Christian  non  resistance,  they 
would  cry,  “Peace  when  there  is  no  peace,”  for 
as  God  warns  us  there  should  be  “no  peace  for  the 
wicked.”  He  tells  us  too  that  “he  bears  not  the 
sword  in  vain  ”  that  is,  that  it  is  through  the  sword 
he  will  accomplish  his  purpose.  So  today,  we 
believe  that  God  is  accomplishing  his  purpose  by 
overcoming  that  “Giant  of  Gath”  that  has  chal¬ 
lenged  the  Christian  nations  of  the  earth  and  has 
defied  the  armies  of  the  living  God.  We  see  then, 
that  resistance  to  crime  and  brutality  is  not  only 
allowed  to  Christians;  but  required  of  them,  in  the 
defence  of  the  weak  and  the  downtrodden  as 
nations  and  individuals.  They  too,  must  see 
that  they  “Bear  not  the  sword  in  vain,”  and  they 


IOO 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


are  surely  lighting  God’s  battles;  for  if  ever  an 
armed  host  entered  into  battle  for  a  righteous 
cause,  it  is  the  allies  today.  Their  cause  is  just 
in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  civilized  world.  Ger¬ 
many  has  absolutely  no  case  no  casus  belli , 
outside  her  own  insatiate  greed  of  conquest,  and 
willingness  to  employ  all  the  agencies  of  evil 
within  her  power  to  insure  her  corrupt  designs. 
For  a  whole  generation,  she  has  kept  this  evil  star 
as  the  guiding  hope  of  her  people.  It  was  em¬ 
bedded  in  the  daily  thought  of  the  rising  genera¬ 
tion  as  the  deliberate  resolve  of  the  whole  nation. 
The  day  was  their  star  of  destiny  which  never 
was  allowed  for  one  moment  to  disappear  from 
the  deliberate  purpose  of  the  people.  Every  day 
brings  to  light  fresh  instances  of  Germany’s 
most  infamous  duplicity,  her  deeply  laid  plot 
against  the  freedom  of  the  world  was  dug  deeper 
year  by  year  until  the  time  came.  The  finger  of 
chance"  pointed  to  the  hour  they  had  so  long 
waited  for,  “the  day”  of  their  evil  desire,  when 
through  brutal  might  they  should  set  out  as  their 
great  chancellor  so  characteristically  said,  “to 
hack  their  way  to  Paris.”  The  Germans  are  an 
astute  people,  but  they  have  been  caught  in  their 
own  snare  and  have  been  betrayed  by  evil  ad¬ 
visers  to  make  many  blunders,  but  the  most 
collossal  of  all  their  blunders  was  in  their  con¬ 
fidence  in  the  superman ,  they  forgot  to  reckon 
with  the  superhuman  and  forgot  that  there  were 
powers  greater  than  those  of  earth  that  might 
stand  in  the  way.  Although  they  professed  God 


Love  Thy  Neighbour 


IOI 


with  their  lips,  they  denied  Him  by  their  acts, 
they  openly  defied  the  principles  of  God’s  Law 
and  therefore  must  stand  condemned  before  God 
and  man. 

Here  was  and  will  be,  we  believe,  the  cause  of 
their  defeat.  Yes,  this  is  what  cheers  our  heart 
today  that  we  believe  that  God  is  on  our  side;  as 
the  Psalmist  says,  “We  will  not  fear  what  man 
can  do  unto  us.  ”  This,  all  through,  has  been 
the  marked  feature  of  this  war;  it  was  surely  no 
human  power  that  stayed  the  brutal  might  of 
Germany  in  its  mad  rush  for  Paris  and  “turned 
them  back  in  the  day  of  battle,”  and  whether  the 
angels  of  God  were  seen  or  unseen  at  Mons  or 
Ypres  or  the  Marne  they,  we  believe,  were 
assuredly  there  to  rescue  God’s  heroes  from  “the 
burning  fiery  furnace”  which  was  “seven  times 
heated.  ”  The  morale  of  the  troops  in  this  great 
struggle  has  been  altogether  unique;  in  the  midst 
of  all  this  din  of  battle  and  shriek  of  shell,  there 
seems  the  calm  of  a.  most  deliberate  purpose; 
there  i9  the  appearance  of  an  individual  conse¬ 
cration,  as  though  every  man  felt  that  he  was 
called  of  God  to  do  his  sacred  work,  and  if  need 
be  to  offer  his  life  in  sacrifice.  Such  courage, 
such  loyality,  such  self-sacrificing  devotion  to 
duty,  and  with  all,  such  never  ceasing  cheerful¬ 
ness  in  every  adverse  condition,  never  has  been 
seen  or  known.  Great  things  for  the  welfare  of 
the  world  are  at  stake  and  they  are  conscious  of 
it  and  they  feel  that  there  is  a  call  for  every  man  to 
do  his  duty.  Death  seems  to  have  lost  its  terror 


102 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


to  these  men,  there  is  but  one  thing  and  that  is  to 
“play  the  game,”  to  “carry  on,  to  see  it  through” 
whatever  betide.  The  supreme  call  for  sacrifice 
seems  to  have  transformed  them  into  a  nobility  of 
which  they  themselves  are  unconscious.  The 
terrible  issues  of  life  and  death  are  day  by  day 
before  them,  they  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
real  things.  Men  that  were  vain  and  foolish  and 
empty-headed!  at  home  become  the  resolute 
veterans  of  the  battlefield,  and  realize  their 
responsibility  as  men,  as  one  of  those  heroes  who 
has  now  cheerfully  borne  his  part  has  nobly 
written: 

“There  are  millions  here  to  whom  the  mere 
consciousness  of  doing  their  duty  has  brought  a 
peace  of  mind  hitherto  unknown.  As  for  myself, 
I  was  never  happier  than  I  am  at  present:  there  is 
a  novel  spice  added  to  life  by  the  daily  risks  and 
the  knowledge  that  at  last  you  are  doing  some¬ 
thing  into  which  no  trace  of  selfishness  enters. 
One  can  die  once  only:  nowadays  the  chief  con¬ 
cern  that  matters  is  how  and  not  when  you  die. 
I  don’t  pity  the  weary  men  who  have  attained 
their  eternal  rest  on  the  shell-furrowed  battle 
field.  ‘They  went  West’  in  their  supreme 
moment.  No,  the  men  I  pity  are  the  slackers, 
those  who  could  not  hear  the  clear  call  of  duty 
and  whose  consciences  will  grow  more  flabby 
every  day.  With  the  brutal  roar  of  the  first 
Prussian  gun,  the  cry  came  to  the  civilized  world, 
‘Follow  thou  Me,’  just  as  truly  as  it  did  in 
Palestine.”  Men  went  to  their  Calvary  singing 


Love  Thy  Neighbour 


103 


their  merry  song,  but  they  were  a  devoted  band, 
for  their  spirit  was  equal  to  that  of  any  Christian 
martyr  on  the  sands  of  a  Roman  Arena  and  their 
epitaph  must  be  “Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die 
in  the  Lord.” 

Now,  when  we  compare  all  that  we  have  said 
with  our  text  what  a  wonderful  harmony  is  here! 
“Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends.”  Such  a  one 
has,  we  may  say,  exceeded  the  standard  of  our 
text,  for  his  love  for  his  neighbour  has  been  greater 
than  for  himself,  for  he  has  given  up  his  life  that 
he  may  live. 

So  we  learn  that  resistance  to  crime  and  bru¬ 
tality  is  not  only  permitted  but  demanded,  as  we 
have  said,  Christ  tells  us  that  “we  are  his  wit¬ 
nesses”  for  truth  and  righteousness.  We  all 
have  taken  our  oaths  of  allegiance  to  his  cause, 
have  sworn  to  fight  against  sin,  the  world,  and 
the  devil,  unto  our  life’s  end  and  when  did  “the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil”  more  aggressively 
reveal  itself  than  by  those  who  have  opened  the 
very  mouth  of  Hell  this  day?  They  stand  side 
by  side  with  the  old  time  enemies  of  God  and  His 
Kingdom,  for  their  trust  is  in  Satan’s  sword  and 
his  spear,  therefore  their  cause  cannot  prosper, 
they  are  not  only  the  enemies  of  God  but  they 
are  the  enemies  of  the  whole  civilized  world. 
Neither  peace  nor  liberty  nor  justice,  nor  truth, 
nor  righteousness  can  remain  to  bless  the  earth 
until  this  blot  on  human  life  is  removed,  till  this 
foul  cancer  is  cut  from  the  body  of  the  race. 


104 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


There  can  be  no  spirit  of  brotherhood  in  the  world 
as  long  as  the  spirit  of  German  rule  is  allowed  to 
exist;  no  love  toward  our  neighbour,  until  the 
Kaiser  is  crushed.  We  do  not,  as  Christian 
people,  hate  Germany,  but  we  cannot  but  hate 
their  sin.  Therefore,  all  maudlin  talk  of  non- 
resistance  is  absolutely  out  of  court,  for  the  whole 
world  is  face  to  face  with  the  one  thing  which  is 
manifest,- — that  at  the  present  moment  Germany 
is  a  criminal  nation.  It  is  Germany  and  Germany 
alone  that  is  responsible  for  the  war.  It  is 
Germany  that  has  been  guilty  of  deliberate 
crimes  against  humanity,  of  premeditated  out¬ 
rages  against  the  laws  of  civilization.  It  is 
Germany  that  mocked  and  scourged  and  crucified 
all  Christendom.  What  place,  then,  we  may  ask 
can  there  be  for  any  softness  or  neutrality  in 
reckoning  with  such  a  nation? 

God,  I  believe,  has  placed  the  surgeon’s  knife 
in  the  hands  of  the  Christian  nations  to  cut  out 
this  cancer,  as  Christ  said  of  old  “Cut  it  down, 
why  cumbereth  it  the  ground?”  and  as  God  said 
of  the  apostate  king  of  Judah  “as  I  live,  though 
Coniah  King  of  Judah  were  a  signet  upon  my 
right  hand,  yet  would  I  pluck  thee  thence  and  I 
will  give  thee  into  the  hands  of  them  that  seek 
thy  life  and  into  the  hands  of  them  that  thou 
fearest.  ”  So,  if  we  have  the  love  of  our  neighbour 
in  our  hearts,  there  is  but  one  thing  for  us  to  do, 
one  thing  that  should  centre  our  energies, — to 
cut  down  this  “strong  man  armed”  like  his  great 
prototypes  indeed  strong,  but  with  the  leader- 


Love  Thy  Neighbour 


105 


ship  of  God  we  must  take  from  him  his  armour  in 
which  he  trusts,  and  divide  the  spoil  for  the 
welfare  of  the  world.  The  safety  of  Europe  de¬ 
mands  it.  The  peace  of  the  world  demands  it. 
The  civilization  of  mankind  demands  it,  and  we 
may  not  hesitate  to  believe  that  it  is  the  will  of 
God. 


) 


XII 


THE  LORD  OF  BATTLES 

A  tumultuous  noise  of  the  kingdoms  of  nations  gathered  to¬ 
gether,  the  Lord  of  Hosts  mustereth  the  host  of  the  battle. 

is.  xm,  4 

T^HERE  are  two  kinds  of  optimism  in  the 
world.  There  is  the  optimism  of  the  man 
who  builds  his  house  on  the  sand,  who 
trusts  to  the  strength  of  his  own  arm,  who  strikes 
boldly,  yet  who  has  neither  faith,  nor  hearing, 
nor  foresight,  who  takes  no  note  of  the  guiding 
principles  of  life,  and  blindly  keeps  his  spirits  up 
simply  by  ignoring  facts,  and  turning  a  deaf  ear 
to  the  warning  notes  of  threatening  danger.  So 
he  presses  on  in  the  path  of  his  determined  pur¬ 
pose,  and  is  willing  to  violate  truth  and  justice 
and  trample  on  the  rights  of  others  and  the  claims 
of  kindred  and  brotherhood.  Aye,  at  times  like 
the  present,  he  scruples  not,  if  need  be,  to  wade 
through  rivers  of  blood  and  carnage  to  satisfy  his 
lust  of  power  and  hunger  of  conquest.  There  can 
be  no  optimism  more  base  than  this,  nor  one  more 
surely  destined  to  ruin  and  destruction,  for  “pride 
goeth  before  destruction,  and  a  haughty  spirit 
before  a  fall.” 

The  other  kind  of  optimism  is  that  of  the  man 

106 


The  Lord  of  Battles 


107 


who  believes  in  God  with  all  his  heart,  believes, 
whate’er  betides  that  God  not  only  rules,  but 
must  rule  over  the  kingdoms  of  men.  “Whom 
He  wills,  He  sets  up;  whom  He  wills,  He  puts 
down.”  Such  a  one  realizes  his  stewardship, 
that  he,  whatever  may  be  his  power  or  his  might 
is  but  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  whose 
designs  are  being  carried  out  through  the  means 
of  human  endeavor.  Such  a  man  feels  himself  a 
part  of  a  divine  order,  feels  and  knows  that  “in 
due  time  he  shall  reap  if  he  faint  not,”  that  truth 
must  triumph,  and  right  will  come  uppermost. 
He  therefore  works  cheerfully  and  persistently, 
even  through  the  greatest  perils  and  darkest 
days,  through  weal  and  woe,  for  that  which 
must  be— a  glorious  end.  In  short,  joy  or 
sorrow,  sickness  or  health,  storm  or  sunshine, 
peace  or  war,  are  in  a  sense,  one  to  him;  all  are 
alike  parts  of  the  same  great  purpose  that  is 
“shaping  our  ends,  rough  hew  how  we  will.” 

No  one  who  has  any  true  knowledge  of  life 
and  its  eternal  conditions,  can  fail  to  see  the 
insolence  and  blind  folly  and  manifest  weakness 
of  the  one,  and  the  fitness  and  beauty  and  ma¬ 
jesty  and  invincible  might,  of  the  other  kind  of 
optimist.  For  since  God  rules  and  must  rule 
over  the  kingdoms  of  men,  a  rule,  moreover, 
which,  must  in.  the  end  prevail,  we  see  that  the 
optimism  of  faith  in  Him,  must  lift  us  above  all 
the  ebbings  and  flowings  of  human  life.  Kings 
sit  high,  but  there  is  one  who  sits  higher,  one  who 
never  abdicates  His  throne.  The  most  haughty 


io8 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


Emperor  that  ever  resisted  His  will,  is  to  Him 
less  than  nothing,  his  mighty  dreadnaughts  are 
as  a  vapor,  his  armed  host,  as  fuel  for  His  fire. 
In  the  end  His  cause  must  triumph,  for  it  is  not 
man,  but  “the  Lord  of  Hosts  that  mustereth  the 
battle.  ” 

This  most  surely  is  the  kind  of  faith  that  we 
need  at  this  hour,  for  it  is  no  longer  the  faith  of 
the  day  or  the  hour  of  prosperity  we  need,  but 
that  of  the  night,  of  the  storm,  and  of  the  battle’s 
wild  alarm;  for  the  olive  branch  of  peace  of  days 
that  are  passed  to  which  so  many  looked,  and 
hoped  would  be  our  permanent  possession,  has, 
by  treacherous  hands,  been  rudely  plucked 
away  and  exchanged  for  the  firebrand  of  war. 

Yes,  there  is  being  enacted  this  day,  the 
greatest  struggle  of  the  world’s  history,  for  it 
comprises  the  greater  part  of  the  civilized  world. 
It  is  a  veritable  reproduction  of  the  prophet’s 
vision,  “a  tumultuous  noise  of  the  kingdoms  of 
the  nations  gathered  together.  ”  Wantonly  and 
deliberately,  and  with  most  treacherous  and 
bloody  purpose  of  heart,  has  the  Kaiser  plunged 
his  sword  into  the  heart  of  civilization;  the  whole 
world  must  pay  the  penalty  of  his  cruel  madness. 
We  may  say  that  he  stands  alone  this  day  as  an 
object  of  execration  in  the  eyes  of  the  civilized 
world,  as  an  unscrupulous  violator  of  the  most 
solemn  treaties,  as  an  oppressor  of  the  weak. 
As  a  proud  and  insolent  usurper,  he  sweeps 
his  devastating  hosts  through  peaceful,  treaty- 
protected  countries  bringing  into  them  the  horrid 


The  Lord  of  Battles 


109 


din  of  war,  turning  prosperous  fields  into  ruined 
heaps,  and  spreading  havoc  and  desolation  every¬ 
where.  Yes,  this  bloodthirsty  autocrat  hesitates 
not  to  put  a  match  to  the  powder  magazines  of 
the  greatest  nations  of  the  earth,  filling  well  nigh 
the  whole  hemisphere  with  the  boom  of  cannon, 
spreading  their  windrows  of  death  and  wholesale 
human  slaughter  mingled  with  the  groans  and 
tears  of  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  causing  at 
the  same  time  the  vast  ruin  of  property,  the 
devastation  of  countries,  and  the  wreckage  of 
nations.  Yes,  all  this  ruthless  carnage  and 
world-wide  havoc,  all  this  setting  back  of  the 
progress  of  the  world,  the  tide  of  man’s  material 
development,  “ten  degrees  backward;”  for  what ? 
Why-}  forsooth  that  Kaiser  William  may  have 
solace  for  his  wounded  dignity,  and  that  the 
German  people  may.  satisfy  their  greed  of  con¬ 
quest,  and  have  a  wider  range  for  their  tyranny 
and  flaunt  the  power  of  their  insolence  in  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth.  The  emperor  of  the  German 
nation  may  be  emulating  the  role  of  the  Na- 
poleon  of  the  twentieth  century;  if  so,  we  would 

bid  him  remember  Waterloo  and  the  prison  walls 
of  Elba. 

The  awful  menace  of  the  hour  is  most  ap¬ 
palling,  and  the  final  issues  to  the  world  are 
entirely  beyond  the  grasp  of  human  compre¬ 
hension,  the  only  thing  we  can  do,  and  this  we 
can  do  with  unfailing  confidence,  is  to  fall  back  on 
first  principles,  that  the  God  of  battles  keeps 
watch  and  guard,  and  that  “the  Lord  of  hosts 


I IO 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


mustereth  the  host  of  the  battle.  We  may  be 
assured  that  there  is  a  divine  purpose  in  it  all,  that 
He  is  teaching  some  lesson  that  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  need.  The  first  thought  which  comes 
to  us  with  regard  to  this  need  is  to  ask,  may  it 
not  be  His  way  of  compelling  peace? 

For  centuries  the  world  has  been  talking  of 
peace,  has  been  building  its  peace  palaces,  has 
been  summoning  its  peace  conferences  and  pro¬ 
posing  the  settlement  of  all  national  differences 
by  peaceful  arbitration,  has  been  proposing  with 
much  apparent  sincerity  the  disarmament  of  the 
nations.  Yes,  but  what  were  they  doing  at  this 
same  hour?  They  were  spending  untold  billions 
to  increase  their  dreadnaughts,  and  to  multiply 
their  engines  of  war  by  land  and  sea.  Yes,  they 
were  employing  the  very  air  we  breathe  to  render 
more  terrible  the  weapons  of  destruction.  Can 
we  not,  then,  believe  that  we  see  the  hand  of  God 
in  this  sifting  of  the  nations,  that  He  is  thereby 
compelling  peace  ?  For  indeed  this  very  barbarism 
of  the  nations  is  defeating  itself,  since  it  has  been 
said  by  one  of  great  military  statesmen  of  Eng¬ 
land,  speaking  of  the  future  possibilities  of  armed 
air-ships  in  time  of  war,  that  the  time  is  not  dis¬ 
tant  when  the  dreadnaught  will  be  obsolete,  and 
for  purposes  of  war  be  outclassed  as  utterly 
useless,  as  unable  to  guard  against  the  more 
deadly  influence  of  the  air-ship,  the  submarine, 
and  the  sunken  mine.  May  this  then  not  do 
something  towards  compelling  peace,  by  teaching 
men  the  utter  folly  of  present  systems  of  warfare 


Ill 


The  Lord  of  Battles 


and  the  criminal  expenditure  which  its  main¬ 
tenance  demands?  There  must  surely  be  an 
end  to  this  barbarous  rivalry  of  the  nations  to 
outdo  each  other  in  military  or  naval  power;  for 
if  it  increases,  it  will  simply  wellnigh  exhaust  the 
energies  of  the  world,  and  paralyze  our  industries 
to  maintain  them  in  times  of  peace,  let  alone  times 
of  war. 

If  peace,  then,  be  one  of  the  results  of  this  cruel, 
shameless  war,  it  will,  we  may  almost  say,  be 
worth  its  cost.  It  would  atone  for  much  of  its 
awful  sacrifice  of  life  and  treasure;  for  there  is 
nothing  that  the  world  needs  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  world  desires,  than  peace.  It  is  cer¬ 
tainly  true  of  the  English-speaking  world.  Ed¬ 
ward  the  Peacemaker  was  and  is  England’s 
boast,  and  had  it  not  been  for  William  the  War 
Maker,  we  would  not  have  today,  this  grim,  dark, 
ugly  spectre  of  war,  frowning  and  rendering  void 
the  years  of  tireless  consecrated  agitation  for 
universal  peace.  It  is  indeed  a  terrible  reproach 
on  the  Christian  world  that  after  two  thousand 
years  of  Christian  teaching,  the  teaching  of  Him 
who  came  to  bring  peace  and  good  will  to  men, 
that  we  see  today  millions  of  professing  Christians, 
banded  together  to  practice  the  most  open  viola¬ 
tion  of  the  very  foundation  of  Christianity,  to  let 
loose  the  most  barbarous  methods  of  violence  to 
kill  and  destroy  their  fellow  Christians. 

Surely  a  most  terrible  recompense  must  sooner 
or  later,  be  required  from  those  who  were  the  in¬ 
stigators  of  this  wicked  and  wanton  catastrophe. 


1 1 2 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


This  leads  us  to  notice  another  end  and  purpose 
which  we  sincerely  hope  may  be  seen  as  the  work 
of  God  in  this  great  war, — the  humbling  to  the 
very  dust,  of  the  insolent  arrogance  of  the  Ger¬ 
man  king  and  nation.  For  a  generation  past, 
Germany  has  been  a  standing  menace  to  the  whole 
world  and  has,  we  know,  been  steadily  preparing 
for  the  blow  she  has  now  struck  under  the  feigned 
excuse  of  the  Serbian  plot.  She  is  a  nation  of 
soldiers  and  believes  only  in  methods  of  war.  She 
has  been  so  inflated  with  her  military  and  naval 
strength  that  she  was  led  to  think  that  she  could 
fight  her  way  to  being  the  first  nation  of  the  earth 
and  above  all,  could  bring  the  British  nation  to 
her  feet.  Indeed,  so  great  is  her  pride  and 
arrogance,  that  she  seems  to  find  her  parallel  in 
Babylon  and  her  king  of  old  when  he  said,  “Is 
not  this  great  Babylon  that  I  have  built  for  the 
house  of  the  kingdom,  by  the  might  of  my  power 
and  for  the  honor  of  my  majesty?”  May  it  not 
be  that  Kaiser  William  needs  to  learn  something 
of  what  Nebuchadnezzar  was  taught,  that  the 
Most  High  and  not  Nebuchadnezzar  rules  over 
the  kingdoms  of  men,  and  that  his  kingdom  will 
sooner  or  later  depart  from  him  as  from  the  king 
of  old.  These  may  or  may  not  be  some  of  the 
results  of  this  war,  but  these  are  in  the  future. 
What  of  the  present?  It  is  today  War ,  war ,  war. 
It  is,  therefore,  of  the  lining  present  of  which  we 
must  think  to  any  purpose,  and  prepare  ourselves 
to  meet  it,  like  loyal  sons  of  that  grand  old 
mother  that  gave  us  birth  and  has  nurtured  and 


The  Lord  of  Battles 


113 


protected  us  in  our  infancy  and  indeed  does  it 
still  even  in  our  sturdy  and  vigorous  manhood, 
when  it  takes  two  oceans  to  confine  our  shores 
Yes,  we  must  still  look  to  “the  granite  walls  of 
Albion  for  protection  from  our  enemies.  Then 
most  surely,  her  cause  is  our  cause,  and  so  when 
.Britain  is  at  war,  we  must  look  upon  it  in  the 
same  light,  as  if  our  own  shores  had  been  in¬ 
vaded  and  our  liberties  threatened— as  indeed 
they  are  by  some  insolent  oppressor. 

So  we  must  go  forth  this  day  as  loyal  sons  to 
fight  for  home  and  motherland.  We  have  this 
gieat  encouragement  in  sending  our  brave  lads  to 
fight  our  battles  in  being  assured  that  our  cause 
is  just,  Britain  is  really  the  peacemaker ,  therefore 
we  have  the  greater  hope  of  victory  over  those  who 
have  so  wantonly  and  insolently  desired  to  stamp 
out  peace  and  liberty  under  the  iron  heel  of 
Teutonic  despotism.  We  may  say  that  the 
whole  world  is  on  our  side,  there  is  no  war  of  her 
great  history  in  which  she  has  had  so  many 
nations  on  her  side  and  such  universal  sympathy, 
as  in  the  present  contest.  We  believe  that  the 
downfall  of  German  militarism  and  the  sundering 
of  its  power,  would  make  a  world  rejoice,  for  it  is 
in  direct  antagonism  to  the  spirit  of  our  age 
which  desires  liberty,  union,  brotherly  love, 
fellowship,  equal  rights,  and  justice  between 
man  and  man,  which  are  the  distinctive  charac¬ 
teristics  of  British  rule.  Then  we  may  say, 
God  bless  those  who  may  be  called  to  the  high 
honor  of  the  defence  of  our  Royal  Banner,  where- 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


1 14 


ever  it  floats  and  summons  to  battle.  And  may 
they  take  for  their  example  the  Belgian  heroes 
who  were  ready  to  defend  their  neutrality  at  all 
costs,  regarding  their  national  honor  above  every 
material  gain  and  spurning  the  infamous  bargain 
by  which  the  Germans  sought  to  bribe  them  to 
remain  mere  spectators  to  this  bartering  of  their 
freedom  as  a  nation.  No,  to  their  immortal 
praise  be  it  said,  they  flung  the  insult  in  the 
German's  faces  and  told  them  that  they  would 
fight  or  die  but  yield  never,  for  to  yield  would  be 
to  bow  their  necks  to  the  hated  German  yoke. 
When  such  heroism  is  found  inspiring  so  small  a 
power  that  boldly  faces  the  German  hordes  and 
bears  the  brunt  of  the  first  attack  of  that  vast 
army,,  surely  Britain’s  standing  aside  would  be 
standing  with  Germany  in  her  treacherous  dealing. 

So,  too,  of  ourselves,  when  Belgium  goes  under 
fire  for  her  freedom  and  the  protection  of  Europe 
from  .German  aggression,  Canada  should  be  by 
her  side.  May  we  not  rejoice  over  that  fervid 
note  of  loyalty  which  since  the  beginning  of  the 
war  has  rung  out  from  every  town  and  village  and 
hamlet  of  our  native  land!  Canada  never  has 
been  backward  in  her  response  to  the  call  to  arms; 
may  her  response  today,  be  brighter  yet! 

So  much  for  our  soldiers,  but  what  of  ourselves? 
What  can  we  do?  we  that  stay  at  home  and  only 
watch  from  afar.  What  can  we  do?  Nothing, 
you  say?  Ah,  we  can  do  much;  for  we  must 
remember  that  it  is  still  “the  Lord  that  mustereth 
the  host  of  the  battle.  ”  We  remember  that 


The  Lord  of  Battles 


beautiful  picture  of  Moses  holding  up  his  hands  in 
prayer  in  the  fight  against  Amalek.  We  are  told 
that  when  he  kept  his  hands  lifted  up  Israel  pre¬ 
vailed,  and  when  his  hands  grew  weary  Amalek 
prevailed.  May  this  not  encourage  us  to  re¬ 
member  our  brave  lads  in  our  daily  prayer,  that 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  should  inspire  their  hearts  to  do 
noble  deeds  and  bring  honor  to  their  native  land, 
and  remember  that  to  fight  for  one’s  native  coun¬ 
try  is  noble;  but  to  die  for  it  is  nobler  still. 


XIII 

ON  THE  LORD’S  SIDE 


And  Moses  stood  in  the  gate  of  the  camp  and  said ,  “  Who  is 
on  the  Lord's  side,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  he  said  unto  them , 
hus  saith  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  i Let  every  man  put  his  sword 
by  his  side  and  consecrate  himself  to  the  Lord.  Even  every  man 
■upon  his  brother  that  God  may  bestow  upon  you  a  Blessing.'  " 

EX.  XXXII,  26 

THE  words  of  our  text  were  spoken  during 
a  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  God’s  people 
of  old,  for  a  panic  of  gross  materialism 
suddenly  had  possessed  them.  Moses,  the  gov¬ 
ernor  general  commanding  the  hosts  of  Israel, 
had  been  summoned  to  the  summit  of  Sinai 
for  a  silent  communion  with  God,  to  receive 
at  His  hand  instructions  for  the  guidance  of  His 
people;  yet,  at  this  sacred  hour  in  the  midst  of 
this  most  solemn  occasion  of  communion  with 
God,  we  are  told  of  a  general  apostasy  of  the 
people,  even  Aaron  the  High  Priest  yielded  to  the 
fierce  demand  of  the  factious  mob,  that  they  might 
worship  the  Gods  of  earth.  So  they  built  them¬ 
selves  altars  and  brought  their  gifts  and  wor- 
shipped  the  golden  calf  which  they  had  made  and 
gave  themselves  to  the  unbridled  worship  of 
the  creature;  as  we  are  told  in  the  inspired  record, 
“the  people  sat  down  to  eat  and  rose  up  again  to 


On  the  Lord’s  Side 


117 


play.”  Could  we  have  in  so  few  words  a  more 
perfect  picture  or  a  better  description,  for  all 
time  of  those  who  give  themselves  to  material 
servitude  and  the  worship  of  the  creature? 

The  mammon  of  unrighteousness  has  ever  been 
and  is  today  the  great  enemy  of  God’s  cause  and 
the  welfare  of  the  race. 

Indeed,  does  it  not  seem  today  as  though  once 
more  in  the  history  of  the  race  that  a  great 
judgment  had  fallen  upon  God’s  people?  and  that 
the  time  had  come,  of  which  God  himself  has  so 
clearly  warned  us, — His  great  sifting  of  the 
nations,  when  “all  nations  shall  be  gathered 
together  in  one  fierce  struggle  of  internecine  war¬ 
fare,  when  brother  should  fight  against  brother, 
and  a  man’s  foes  should  be  they  of  his  own  house- 
hold.” 

And  it  is  most  significant  for  us  to  notice  that 
the  coming  of  this  day  of  blood,  was  fulfilled  to 
God’s  people  of  old  in  the  destruction  of  Jeru¬ 
salem  by  the  greatest  militarists  of  the  ancient 
world  and  the  time  of  this  inhuman  sacrifice 
of  life  and  treasure,  was  marked  in  a  peculiar 
way;  it  was  described  as  the  “abomination  of 
desolation  set  up  in  the  Holy  place,”  that  is, 
when  the  Roman  eagle,  the  symbol  of  power, 
should  be  seen  in  Jerusalem.  The  merciless 
cruelties  inflicted  by  the  Roman  soldier,  in  this 
hour  of  terror,  are  almost  beyond  human  speech 
to  describe  and  never  have  been  equalled  by  its 
inhuman  ferocity  in  the  records  of  men.  Now 
since  the  war  which  ended  in  this  destruction, 


1 1 8 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


there  never  has  been  a  war  amongst  nations,  so 
absolutely  inhuman,  so  cruel,  with  such  violation 
of  sacred  pledges  and  the  instincts  of  common 
humanity,  so  ingenious  in  multiplying  engines  of 
destruction  and  every  possible  device  of  the 
devil  (yes,  as  though  the  time  had  come  of  which 
the  prophet  speaks  when  “hell  had  enlarged 
herself  )  as  the  struggle  in  which  we  are  now 
engaged.  It  is  most  significant  to  note  that  the 
time  of  this  blood  and  slaughter  and  ruthless 
destruction  is  marked  again  by  the  same  symbol, 
of  power,  the  German  eagle,  the  “abomination 
of  desolation,”  is  set  up  once  more  in  “the  holy 
place”  of  God’s  Kingdom,  His  holy  place  is 
defiled  by  the  ruthless  heel  of  the  Prussian  tyrant. 

^  the  fields  of  God’s  vineyard  run  red  with 
the  blood  of  our  sons.  Their  loyalty  and  their 
courage  have  made  their  names  a  praise  in  the 
earth,  and  their  heroic  deeds  will  be  found  in¬ 
scribed  on  the  deathless  page  of  history,  as  the 
deeds  of  men  who  counted  not  the  cost,  nor  their 
lives  dear  that  freedom,  truth,  and  justice  might 
remain  unto  men.  Yes,  my  friends,  when  the 
story  of  Ypres  and  Neuve  Chappelle  and  Vimy 
Ridge  is  told,  it  will  be  known  what  the  dauntless 
sons  of  Britain  may  do  and  dare.  The  men  of 
Canada  have  proved  themselves  the  worthy  sons 
of  their  sires,  they  are  truly,  “chips  off  the  old 
block, ’’  that  sturdy  oak  of  loyalist  stock,  that 
spread  its  branches  out  wide  over  this  virgin 
soil.  They  were  the  brave  pioneers  of  our  race 
who  put  honor  and  love  of  country,  above  tern- 


On  the  Lord* s  Side 


119 


poral  welfare  and  material  gain  and  so  left  their 
wealth  and  comfortable  homes  to  face  in  an  alien 
land,  the  unknown  hardships  and  perils  of  pioneer 
life.  It  is  the  same  spirit  we  find  in  our  sons  to¬ 
day,  of  which,  thank  God,  they  are  giving  abun¬ 
dant  proof  at  this  hour,  so  that  the  curse  of 
Meroz  is  not  upon  them  for  they  have  “come  to 
the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty.  ”  When 
we  think  not  only  of  the  sacrifices  that  have  been 
made,  the  homes  that  have  been  made  desolate, 
the  blood  that  has  been  shed,  but  of  the  blood 
that  must  yet  be  shed  and  the  awful  sacrifices 
that  must  yet  be  made  before  this  demon  spirit 
of  cruelty  and  despotism  can  be  crushed,  can  we 
doubt  the  nobility  of  our  sacrifice  or  the  justness 
of  our  cause?  Must  we  not  believe  that  these 
are  men  whom  God  hath  called?  That  they  are 
not  only  heroes  and  patriots  fighting  for  the 
welfare  of  our  country,  but  they  are  as  priests  of 
God?  Are  they  not  as  our  text  says,  “conse¬ 
crating  themselves  to  the  Lord,”  offering  a 
sacrifice  well  pleasing  unto  Him?  They  are 
“filling  up”  as  St.  Paul  says,  “the  sufferings  of 
Christ”  in  their  own  bodies  by  the  willing  sacri¬ 
fice  of  their  own  lives  and  the  shedding  of  their 
own  blood  for  the  triumph  of  freedom  and  the 
redemption  of  men.  Great  Britain  could  have 
remained  neutral  in  this  war  if  she  had  been 
willing  to  have  her  shield  of  honor  tarnished  by 
seeing  sacred  treaties  broken,  feeble  nations 
oppressed  and  their  countries  devastated,  yet 
raised  no  hand  to  stay  the  oppressor.  Yes? 


120 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


truly  she  might  have  done  this,  but  nations  as 
well  as  mep  can  do  things  that  will  brand  them 
forever  as  ingrates  and  cowards.  Had  she  stood 
aside  in  this  great  crisis — seen  her  friends  hewn  to 
pieces,  just  to  satisfy  the  lust  of  an  insolent  ty¬ 
rant,  she  would  have  gone  down  in  the  history 
of  nations  as  a  coward  who  for  selfish  reasons  let 
her  friends  perish  by  her  side.  It  was  upon  her 
honor  and  upon  her  idea  of  right  between  man 
and  man  that  Britain  and  her  colonies  and  last,  but 
not  least,  the  loyal  sons  of  America  stand  today, 
and  have  ever  stood,  willing  to  pour  out  their 
blood  to  the  last  drop  for  the  right  and  freedom  of 
men.  So  let  us  thank  God  this  day  that  however 
we  may  have  fallen,  whatever  virtue  we  may 
have  lost  as  a  people  or  a  nation,  that  we  have 
not  lost  our  honor  nor  the  sense  of  its  value. 
We  have  yet,  thank  God,  sympathy  for  the  op¬ 
pressed.  Whenever  a  nation  (as  powerful  as  it 
maybe)  loses  these,  it  is  marked  for  death  and 
decay.  This  has  been  the  distinctive  quality  of 
Britain,  the  source  of  her  strength,  that  both  by 
honor  and  tradition  she  was  bound  to  one  thing, 
her  history  pledged  her  to  it.  All  through 
Europe  she  has  stood  for  the  independence,  the 
inviolable  rights  of  small  nations.  If  Germany, 
the  recognized  pirate  of  the  nations,  had  been 
allowed  without  hindrance  from  Britain,  she  would 
have  swept  the  French  fleet  from  the  seas,  have 
captured  all  her  coast  towers  and  fortified  them, 
she  would  have  been  within  speaking  distance  of 
England’s  front  door,  she  would  have  had  Eng- 


On  the  Lord's  Side 


ill 


land  and  France  at  her  feet,  and  been  a  terror  and 
menace  to  the  world.  But  England  assumed  her 
accustomed  role  among  the  nations  and  gathered 
as  one  man  her  “far-flung  batcle  line”  from  the 
four  corners  of  the  earth  to  stand  in  the  breach 
of  death  to  stay  the  oppressor  and  give  liberty 
to  the  oppressed. 

Hence  it  is,  then,  that  we  and  our  brothers  in 
many  lands  are  pledged  in  an  awful  strife  to  carry 
it  through  at  every  cost.  We  dare  not  flinch  nor 
play  the  coward  by  keeping  back  our  sons,  we 
dare  not  think  of  the  future  or  what  it  may  bring 
to  us  or  what  our  future  relations  within  the  em¬ 
pire  will  be.  This  is  not  the  time  to  think  or  talk 
about  that.  When  the  stake  is  for  life  and  death, 
it  is  nor  the  time  to  think  of  conditions  and 
possible  results.  No,  the  first  thing  is  to  see  this 
fight  through  at  all  costs  and  all  hazards,  to  save 
the  empire  and  do  it  in  simple  faith,  with  an 
honest  heart,  as  men  who  feel  that  they  have  the 
honor  of  the  world  and  truth  of  God  to  maintain. 
Neither  we  nor  our  country  ever  can  be  what  we 
were  before  the  advent  of  this  war.  If  we  loved 
our  native  land  in  the  past,  in  our  hours  of  ease 
and  prosperity,  it  surely  appeals  to  us  more  in 
times  of  menace  and  of  danger.  In  the  days  of 
peace  and  progress  when  every  peaceful  industry 
was  booming  and  the  tide  of  plenty  was  at  our 
gates,  that  was  notour  real  testing  time;  but  more 
our  time  of  peril,  in  the  slacking  of  our  moral  virtues 
and  the  loosening  of  our  manhood.  But  when  the 
hour  of  danger  comes  and  the  call  to  stand  to  arms 


122 


Saved,  as  by  Fire 


is  heard,  when  the  ruthless  foe  is  at  our  gates,  it 
is  then  that  every  man  braces  himself  for  action, 
his  blood  runs  fast,  and  his  spirit  is  fired.  He  is 
ready  to  consecrate  himself  by  noble  action,  or 
stand,  if  need  be  in  the  breach  of  death,  to  do  ot 
die  for  home  and  fatherland,  for  God  and  country 
and  the  mother  that  gave  him  birth.  These  are 
the  precious  times  in  a  nation’s  history,  for  they 
prove  the  courage  and  loyalty  of  its  people.  The 
love  of  our  country  is  ten  times  greater  in  times 
of  peril  than  in  times  of  peace. 

Thus  it  comes,  friends  and  brothers,  that  this 
great  war  is  testing  us,  proving  our  manhood, 
giving  us  moral  strength,  by  teaching  us  the 
great  law  of  sacrifice,  and  self  control,  teaching 
us  to  lift  up  our  thoughts  above  self  and  helping 
to  put  before  us,  lofty  ideals  and  teaching  us  the 
Divine  law  that  “no  man  liveth  to  himself.” 

It  may  be  the  very  lesson  that  we  most  sorely 
peed,  here  in  Canada,  at  this  very  time  when  she 
is  beginning  to  realize  her  vast  possibilities  of 
becoming  one  of  the  great  nations  of  the  earth, 
beholding  as  she  does  the  priceless  treasures  that 
she  holds  within  her  borders  that  God  has  com¬ 
mitted  to  her  rule  and  government. 

May  not  this  war,  then,  as  terrible  as  it  is,  be 
the  means  of  building  up  and  consolidating  our 
empire,  in  saving  us  as  a  people  from  falling  into 
the  pit  of  materialism  which  has  been  the  snare 
of  nations  in  all  time?  Lest  we  too,  like  Israel 
of  old,  should  give  ourselves  up  (as  we  are  ever 
prone  to  do)  to  the  worship  of  the  Golden  Calf  and 


On  the  Lord’s  Side 


123 


think  because  that  we  are  “rich  and  plenteous 
with  all  manner  of  store,”  because  our  industries 
boom,  because  our  fertile  fields  extend  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  that  therefore  we  are  a  great  people. 
Here  let  me  warn  you  is  our  great  and  ever 
present  peril,  for  here  has  ever  been  the  insanity 
of  the  race.  No,  this  surely  is  no  test  of  our  great¬ 
ness  for  we  might  be  and  have  all  these  things 
and  they  would  be  no  better  than  a  curse  to 
us  and  to  the  world.  We  must,  if  we  would  live, 
set  up  a  higher  standard  than  this,  if  we  would 
make  our  nation  a  praise  in  the  earth,  we  must 
remember  that  the  welfare  and  development  of 
a  country  depends  on  men  and  not  on  money  or 
lands.  An  empire  is  tested  by  the  quality  of  the 
men  and  women  who  belong  to  the  empire,  their 
honesty,  their  sobriety,  their  self  control,  their 
courage  and  love  of  their  fellowmen  and  their 
reverence  for  God,  in  a  word,  their  manhood  and 
womanhood. 

I  his,  let  me  tell  you,  is  the  great  question  that 
is  being  fought  out  this  day  on  the  battle-field  of 
Europe,  it  is  virtue  versus  vice,  it  is  right  against 
might,  spiritual  force  versus  material  power. 
It  is  against  the  spirit  of  murderous  Cain  we  are 
fighting  this  day.  We  may  say,  then,  in  spite  of 
its  nameless  atrocity,  it  is  in  a  very  real  sense  a 
“  holy  war,  ”  for  it  is  making  men  and  women,  and 
it  has  its  moral  victories.  There  is  a  deep  spirit¬ 
ual  force  at  work,  bringing  countless  multitudes 
face  to  face  with  the  verities  of  life  and  the  things 
that  count,  that  are  really  worth  while.  We  are 


124 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


going  through  a  time  of  discipline  and  of  conflict 
which  is  changing  our  character  and  making  us 
of  sterner  stuff,  which  will  enable  us  to  stand  on 
higher  ground  and  in  a  loftier  sphere,  than  we 
have  hitherto  lived.  So,  when  this  great  crisis, 
this  great  sifting  of  the  world  is  past,  we  may 
look  lor  a  new  order  of  things,  in  this  as  well  as 
other  lands,  which,  will  lead,  let  us  hope  to  a 
higher  life  and  loftier  purposes,  not  only  of  the 
nation  but  of  the  individual  life.  Those  who  are 
permitted  to  return  from  this  Gethsemane  of 
blood  and  passion,  will  bring  back  those  qualities 
of  firmness,  and  sense  of  duty,  which  they  have 
gained,  which  will  influence  their  whole  lives  and 
be  a  blessing  to  the  earth.  While  those  who  have 
fallen  in  the  ranks  of  war,  have  followed  in  the 
way  of  the  Cross  in  giving  their  lives  for  men  and 
the  uplifting  of  the  nations. 


XIV 


ALL  THINGS  NEW 


Behold  I  make  all  things  new 

Trev.  xxi,  5 

HIS  seems  ope  of  the  most  glorious  promises 
ever  made  in  Heaven  or  earth;  for  it  was 
the  great  purpose  of  God,  in  sending  His 
Son  to  take  upon  Him  our  flesh,  to  restore  to 
humanity  that  perfect  fullness  and  harmony  with 
God  s  law,  that  sin  and  disobedience  had  so  robbed 
and  marred,  and  so  to  “make  all  things  new.” 
Yes,  its  glorious  fulfillment  was  the  ultimate 
purpose  of  God,  but  it  was  a  purpose  that  was 
attainable  only,  through  a  process  of  law,  that 
was  in  harmony  with  God’s  manner  of  dealing 
with  man,  which  was  that  of  co-operation.  God 
would  do  nothing  without  man,  man  must  be  a 
fellow  helper.  Omnipotence,  human  effort,  must 
go  hand  in  hand,  or  God’s  purpose  for  the  world 
could  not  be  fulfilled.  Though  the  fulfillment 
was  sure,  it  depended  on  human  conditions. 
This  new  heavens  and  new  earth  could  be  only  the 
out-come  of  love.  When  men  learned  to  love  one 
another,  then  only  it  might  be;  for  love  was  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law,  both  human  and  divine. 
Since  this,  then,  is  the  law  of  God,  can  we  wonder 
that  the  fulfillment  of  this  divine  promise  has 

125 


126 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


been  hitherto  postponed?  When  we  look  down 
on  this  blood-stained  old  earth  and  think  of  its 
awful  tale  of  treachery  and  wrong,  of  its  reigns  of 
cruelty  and  injustice  in  the  past;  think  too  of  the 
history  of  the  Church  herself,  what  she  has  done 
in  the  name  of  Him  who  came  to  bring  peace  on 
earth  and  Jove  towards  men!  Yet  through  her 
pride  and  intolerance,  she  has  used  almost  every 
engine  of  evil,  has  employed  the  stake  and  the 
block  and  the  guillotine  to  enforce  her  principles! 
Where  we  may  ask  can  love  be  found  in  this  scene 
of  blood?  Or  how  can  we  look  for  this  blessing 
today  when  we  look  abroad  over  the  earth  to  see 
it  deluged  with  the  blood  of  the  slain,  see  Christian 
nations  with  satanic  fury,  struggling  for  the 
mastery  and  thirsting  for  their  brothers’  blood. 

But  since  we  know  that  God  does  all  things 
well,  and  that  He  ever  works  for  the  good  of 
His  creatures,  may  not  this  world-wide  struggle 
for  truth  and  justice,  be  in  His  hands,  the  very 
means  by  which  He  would  hasten  this  restored 
order  and  make  all  things  new?  Can  we  think  it 
possible  that  this  blood  which  has  been  shed  as  a 
willing  sacrifice  for  the  freedom  and  welfare  of  the 
world  be  shed  in  vain?  Must  not  it  tend  to  open 
the  eyes  of  the  world  to  real  things,  to  things  that 
last  and  teach  them  that  there  are  things  that  are 
more  valuable  than  lust  of  possession  and  greed 
of  conquest?  Must  not  also  the  patience  and  en¬ 
durance,  the  fortitude  and  self  sacrifice  which 
this  war  has  developed,  leave  its  impression  on 
the  minds  and  thoughts,  not  only  of  those  who 


All  Things  New 


127 


have  taken  part  in  this  struggle,  but  on  the  great 
mass  of  those  who  have  had  the  example  of  this 
heroism  brought  home  to  them? 

We  must  never  forget  that  love  is  the  only 
thing  that  is,  the  one  thing  that  does  not  pass 
away,,  it  never  faileth,  it  is  indeed  the  one  great 
force  in  human  life,  it  is  the  fulcrum  that  moves 
the  world;  therefore  no  good  can  come  to  man 
permanently  except  through  love,  but  here  we  are 
met  with  a  fundamental  law,  which  is  that  love 
and  sacrifice  go  hand  in  hand  and  cannot  be  put 
asunder.  Where  love  is,  there  is  the  spirit  of 
sacrifice.  Sacrifice  is  the  proof  of  love,  and  it  has 
no  other  proof.  This  proclaims  union  with  God, 
for  God  is  love.  But  to  be  the  love  of  God,  it 
must  be  all-embracing.  The  love  that  centres  in 
sell  is  not  of  God,  but  of  the  devil;  for  we  are  told 
that  “he  who  loveth  not  his  brother,  abideth  in 
death,”  that  “he  who  saith  he  loves  God,  and 
does  not  love  his  brother  is  a  liar.”  Christ  came 
not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill  the  ancient  law  by 
bringing  to  the  world  the  vitalizing  principle  which 
should  transform  it,  and  make  it  capable  of 
growth  toward  that  which  God  meant  it  to  be. 
Christ  brought  to  the  world  the  life  of  God  which 
is  love,  and  therefore  it  is  love  alone  that  is  able 
permanently  to  subdue  the  world.  God  is  moving 
the  world  today  as  he  did  when  He  sent  His  only 
Son  to  redeem.it,  but  it  can  only  be  redeemed  in 
God’s  way  which  is  the  way  of  love.  Just  here, 
has  been  the  colossal  mistake  of  the  ages,  man  has 
endeavored  to  subdue  it  by  force ,  and  to  estab- 


128 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


lish  the  principle  that  might  is  right,  and  it  has 
cost  the  world  untold  sums  of  money  and  rivers 
of  blood  to  learn  the  sin  of  this  devilish  deceit. 
But  the  greatest  of  all  sins  has  been,  that  it  is  not 
only  the  nations  that  have  sinned  in  this  respect, 
but  the  Church  herself  has  been  caught  in  this 
snare  in  that  she  has  attempted  to  sit  on  the 
throne  of  the  universe  and  call  herself  the  ruler  of 
the  nations  and  make  all  men  bow  to  her  imperial 
ruling..  She  too  in  the  past  has  maintained  that 
might  is  right,  and  for  love,  has  substituted  rigid 
discipline  and  compulsory  obedience  to  ecclesias¬ 
tical  laws.  This  unbending  and  unchristian  rule 
of  the  Church  prepared  the  way  not  for  union 
and  brotherhood  but  for  schism  and  discord,  so 
religious  sects  and  parties  multiplied  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  the  unity  of  the  Church  was 
broken  up  into  contending  factions,  each  like  the 
nations,  striving  for  the  mastery.  So  it  was  that 
the  spirit  of  Christ — that  of  love  and  brother¬ 
hood  became  well  nigh  banished  from  the  earth 
and  has  brought  untold  evils  in  its  train,  the 
spirit  of  selfish  isolation  has  been  our  curse. 
Hence  it  is  that  though  the  church  today  may 
have  the  “form  of  godliness,”  she  lacks  the  power. 

In  truth  we  have  been  half  Christians,  not 
really  Christians  at  all,  in  that  we  lacked  the  only 
spirit  that  can  make  us  Christians  that  is, — love. 

1  lie  Church’s  failure  in  this  respect  has  had 
its  influence  upon  the  nations,  in  that  not  having 
taken  Christ  s  standard  for  herself,  as  a  Church,  it 
was  easy  for  men  to  think  that  our  Lord  did  not 


All  Things  New 


129 


intend  His  new  law  to  apply  to  the  nations,  and 
the  nations  were  only  too  ready  to  accept  the 
teaching  of  the  Church  in  this  respect. 

The  sin  of  the  Church  in  this  way,  has  been  the 
sin  of  the  nations,  sowing  its  seed  of  evil  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  and  increasing  in  power  and  in¬ 
fluence  as  the  generations  pass.  It  has  brought  to 
us  its  recompense  this  day.  It  has  turned 
Europe  into  a  den  of  wild  beasts,  and  has  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  world  to  what  a  national  desire  for 
self-aggrandizement  and  lust  for  power  and  might, 
leads  to,  anarchy  and  blood-shed  and  every  evil 
work.  If  the  handful  of  national  diplomats  and 
insane  leaders,  who  brought  on  this  horrible 
slaughter  through  their  insistent  greed  and 
national  selfishness,  had  met  together  in  earnest 
effort  to  see  how  the  law  of  love  could  solve  the 
problem,  who  can  doubt  that  God  would  have 
shown  them  the  way?  But  through  ignoring  this 
divine  principle,  these  Hunnish  Junkerists  have 
set  back  the  tide  of  progress,  not  only  in  our  own 
land,  but  in  the  whole  world;  unless  it  may  be 
that  through  all  the  black  smoke  and  horrid  fires 
of  this  dreadful  holocaust,  God  in  His  wondrous 
dealing  is  purging  the  earth,  and  through  its 
cleansing  power  may  “make  all  things  new.” 

There  can  be  no  doubt  to  any  thinking  mind 
that  vast  issues  are  before  us  at  this  hour.  As 
God  said  to  Elis  people  of  old,  “Behold,  I  call 
heaven  and  earth  to  witness  that  I  have  set  before 
you  life  and  death,  therefore  choose  life,  that  thou 
and  thy  people  may  live.” 


130 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


The  question  then  is,  are  we  really  to  get  a  new 
start  after  all  this?  If  so,  let  us  remember  that 
the  upward  trend  must  begin  with  ourselves,  we 
must  “plant  and  water”  if  God  would  give  the 
increase,  for  though  we  are  nothing  without  God, 
yet  God  will  do  nothing  without  us. 

If  then,  a  new  life  is  to  open  out  on  the  world 
through  this  terrible  baptism  of  fire,  we  must 
take  heed  that  the  new  life  is  in  us.  If  there  is 
really  to  be  a  “new  Hea\en  and  a  new  earth  in 
which  dwelleth  righteousness,”  we  ourselves  must 
prepare  the  way. 

And  ought  we  not  to  begin  with  the  Church, 
and  ask  ourselves  is  there  to  be  a  new  Church? 
Can  the  evil  dragon  of  schism  be  slain?  Can  the 
long  history  of  misunderstanding  and  bitterness 
be  done  away?  Can  the  great  wounds  in  the  body 
be  healed,  the  great  gulfs  of  separation  be  bridged 
over?  Aye,  can  the  indifference  and  the  dull¬ 
ness  and  the  sloth  like  hideous  bats  be  frightened 
out  of  the  darkness  and  the  whole  Church  make 
a  new  start  in  the  broad  light  of  the  full-orbed  day  ? 

Let  us  be  assured  that  it  is  not  uniformtiy  but 
xnity  and  love  and  fellowship  that  the  world 
needs  this  day, — one  united  band  of  Christian 
workers. 

The  glory  of  the  Church  of  England  is  her 
comprehensiveness,  the  liberty  that  she  extends 
to  her  members.  She  holds  that  truth  is  so  vast, 
so  deep  in  its  wonderful  unfoldings,  that  no  single 
mind  can  grasp  it  in  its  fullness.  So  long,  there¬ 
fore,  as  we  are  at  one  with  regard  to  its  grand 


All  Things  New 


131 


foundations,  there  may  be  liberty  granted  in  the 
working  out  of  these  necessary  principles.  For 
what,  we  may  ask,  is  comprehensiveness,  but  the 
manifestation  of  Love?  The  love  which  in  the 
deepest  humility  recognizes  that  perhaps  the 
finite  human  mind  may  not  wholly  understand 
the  infinity  of  truth,  and  that  those  from  we 
differ,  may  perchance  know  more  of  truth,  than 
the  noise  and  heat  of  controversy  permits  us  to 
perceive. 

So  in  the  Church,  if  we  really  loved  each  other, 
as  Christ  would  have  us  do,  we  would  learn  the 
value  of  a  wide  vision  and  learn  to  put  ourselves 
in  our  brother’s  place,  and  try  to  understand  his 
conditions  and  so  change  our  point  of  view.  We 
are  so  bound  up  in  the  straight-jacket  of  in¬ 
dividual  opinion,  tied  hand  and  foot  in  the  “mint, 
anise  and  cumin  ”  of  non-essentials  of  mere  ecclesi¬ 
astical  tradition  and  in  the  logical  letter  of  the 
law,  that  we  disturb  the  unity  and  harmony  of 
the  Church  by  our  denunciation  of  each  other. 

Here  we  are  false  to  the  very  principles  of  the 
Church  which  prescribes  “unity  in  essentials, 
liberty  in  non-essentials  and  charity  in  all  things.” 

We  must  remember,  too,  that  our  faith  is  not 
built  on  logic,  but  on  love;  logic  is  human  and 
finite  and  useful  only  when  dealing  with  finite 
matters.  It  is  often  worse  than  useless  and  an 
absolute  hindrance  spiritually,  because  from  its 
very  nature  it  cannot  distinguish  between  the 
finite  and  the  infinite. 

Logic,  the  desire  to  measure  the  truth  of  God, 


132 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


in  the  balances  of  human  reason,  has  been  the 
adder’s  poison  at  the  root  of  our  ecclesiastical  dif¬ 
ferences.  .  It  has  no  power  to  comprehend  faith 
in  mysteries,  nor  to  understand  things  that  appear 
contrary  to  human  reason,  seeming  paradoxes,  of 
which  the  word  of  God  is  full. 

Faith  in  that  which  is  seen  only,  is  not  faith 
in  its  true  sense,  for  it  is  of  “the  earth,  earthy.”  It 
is  the  great  joy  and  privilege  of  the  Christian  to 
believe  where  he  cannot  see. 

Yes,  love  is  all  embracing,  it  has  no  bounds  nor 
limits,  it  sweeps  earth  and  heaven  in  its  mighty 
grasp,  “perfect  love  casteth  out  fear.  ” 

Unity,  then,  is  what  we  need, — unity  more  than 
uniformity.  The  Church  had  uniformity  for 
I5°o  years,  and  it  wrought  one  of  the  worst  evils 
that  ever  have  come  upon  the  Christian  world, 
and  has  done  more  than  anything  else  to  strangle 
its  missionary  work,  sow  the  seeds  of  discord 
amongst  men.  We  may  have  real  Christian  unity 
without  uniformity;  “there  are  diversities  of  gifts 
but  . the  same  spirit,  and  there  are  differences  of 
ministries  but  the  same  Lord,  and  there  are  di¬ 
versities  of  operations  but  the  same  God,  which 
worketh  all  in  all.”  Yes,  as  the  apostle  tells  us 
“the  body  is  one,  yet  it  hath  many  members,” 
each  has  its  office  to  perform  for  the  health  and 
vigor  of  the  body. 

And  in  this  divine  parable  given  to  us  showing 
to  us  the  true  life  of  the  church  of  God,  is  it  not 
worthy,  our  notice  that  the  apostle  warns  us  of 
something  that  we  are  apt  to  forget, — the  im- 


133 


All  Things  New 


portance  of  the  unseen  agencies  of  the  body,  when 
he  tells  us  “that  those  members  of  the  body 
which  we  think  to  be  less  honorable,  have  the 
more  abundant  honor,”  those  members  of  the 
body,  which  “seem  to  be  feeble  are  necessary” 
that  there  should  be  no  schism  in  the  body. 

God  reveals  His  truth  in  diverse  ways  and  gives 
talents  to  each,  to  be  used  in  furthering  His  work, 
“every  man  according  to  his  several  ability”  and 
it  is  not  the  form  in  which  this  talent  is  given,  but 
the  use  of  the  talent  that  is  of  the  most  extreme 
importance. 

Let  unity,  then,  be  our  watchword  today. 
This  has  been  the  great  truth  which  has  been 
brought  before  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world  in 
this  vast  turmoil  of  the  nations,  unity  has  been 
and  is  their  great  strength.  All  creeds  and  colors, 
races  and  nations  have  been  welded  into  one  body, 
standing  together,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  against 
one  common  foe,  that  would  crush  love  out  of  the 
world,  a  power  that  has  proved  itself  more  de¬ 
graded  than  the  unspeakable  Turk.  These  men 
have  fought  together,  they  have  bled  together, 
they  have  died  together  and  have  been  buried  in 
one  common  grave,  the  symbol  of  our  common 
faith  has  marked  their  blessed  resting  place. 

The  question  for  the  Christian  Church  is, 
can  we  look  on  this  wondrous  object  lesson  of 
unity,  and  still  continue  to  emphasize  our  differ¬ 
ences  and  refuse  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  our  Christian  brothers  in  this  great  crisis  of 
the  world’s  history,  when  God  is  opening  such 


134 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


a  great  door  as  has  not  been  opened  in  all  time, 
for  the  redemption  of  the  world,  and  the  fulfilling 
of  His  work.  Shall  we  not  strive  in  every  possible 
way,  to  make  the  world  see  that  we  believe  in  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  and  recognize  that  we  are 
not  sufficient  of  ourselves  or  in  ourselves,  that  we 
need  the  help  of  all  our  brethren,  of  whatsoever 
name,  to  maintain  that  unity  that  shall  convince 
the  world  of  the  need  of  Christ. 

Indeed,  it  may  be  that  we  need  their  help  for 
a  more  complete  vision  of  Him,  that  we  may  see 
the  whole  truth  of  Him  who  came  “to  be  the  light 
of  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world  ”  and  is 
“the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life”  to  every 
creature  that  He  hath  made. 


XV 


PEACE  THROUGH  THE  SWORD 


CHRISTMAS 


Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  send  peace  on  the  earth.  I  am 
not  come  to  send  peace  but  a  sword. 


MATT.  X,  34 


HOW  these  words,  at  first  sight,  seem  to  jar 
as  a  horrid  discord  in  the  harmony  of  our 
Christmas-tide!  and  yet  we  know  they  came 
from  the  lips  of  Him,  who  was  and  is  the  Prince 
of  Peace,  whom  the  heavenly  host  proclaimed  as 
bringing  “peace  and  good  will  to  all  people.”  The 
word  and  thought  of  Peace,  we  find  continually 
on  the  lip  and  in  the  mind  of  Christ.  Indeed, 
He  seems  to  look  upon  it  as  man’s  highest  gift, 
his  chief  attainment. 

Before  He  ascended  in  triumph  to  His  Father, 
His  final  gift  to  His  disciples  was  that  of  peace, 
His  parting  benediction  was  accompanied  with 
the  thrice-bestowed  blessing  of  peace. 

But  lest  they  should  mistake  the  nature  of  the 
blessing,  He  goes  on  to  tell  them  the  kind  of  peace 
of  which  He  spake.  It  was  not  a  peace  of  body 
(for  that  might  bring  them  a  curse  and  not  a 
blessing)  it  was  a  peace  of  soul.  His  peace,  “My 

135 


136 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


peace  I  give  unto  you.”.  He  goes  on  further  to 
tell  them  that  it  was  a  gift  that  the  world  could 
neither  give  nor  take  away.  It  was  something 
that  He  alone  could  impart,  so  He  says,  .“My 
peace  I  give  unto  you  not  as  the  world  giveth, 
give  I  unto  you.”  Therefore,  “let  not.  your 
heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid,  in  the 
world  ye  shall  have  tribulation,  but  be  of  good 
cheer  for  I  have  overcome  the  world.  ”  . 

In  these  great  words  of  the  Divine  Peace¬ 
maker,  the  words  of  our  text  seem  to  unfold 
themselves  and  give  light  to  their  meaning,  in 
that  they  do  not  refer  to  a  condition  of. the  body, 
but  to  a  condition  of  the  soulr  It  is  not  an 
earthly  gift  but  a  heavenly  one. 

In  the  word  tribulation  of  which  He  tells  them, 
we  get  the  first  gleam  of  the  sword.  We  hear 
the  din  of  warfare,  the  clash  of  arms,  of  putting 
on  “the  whole  armor”  and  fighting  “the  good 
fight”  of  faith,  if  we  would  obtain  the. peace  that 
Christ  came  to  bring  this  day.  Does  it  not  seem 
almost  a  mockery  and  a  sort  of  cruel  irony  to  talk 
of  peace  when  we  look  on  the  battle-scarred  fields 
of  France  and  Belgium  this  day  and  see  what  we 
may  call  the  slaughter  house  of  Christian  nations? 
Are  we  not  almost  tempted  to  think,  if  not  to  say, 
that  the  Christian  religion  has  (as  its  adversaries 
declare)  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  been 
found  wanting?  For  are  not  its  fundamental 
principles  discredited,  proved  valueless  to  guide 
and  govern  the  lives  of  men?  We  may  say  can 
it  be  that  Christian  nations  are  slaughtering  one 


Peace  Through  the  Sword, 


137 


another  thus?”  “No,”  we  answer,  “it  is  not 
possible,  it  is  because  they  are  not  Christians 
that  it  becomes  possible,  it  is  because  men  have 
borne  the  words  of  Christ  on  their  lips,  while  they 
have  cherished  the  spirit  of  evil  in  their  hearts.” 

This  war,  with  all  its  staggering  horrors,  gives 
evidence  simply  to  the  depths  to  which  national 
selfishness  can  descend,  unchecked  by  the  love  of 
Christ.  As  a  great  writer  has  said  “war  has  one 
virtue,  it  reveals  what  is  in  men,  it  clears  the  air 
of  hypocrisy,  it  takes  the  sword  from  the  scab¬ 
bard,  and  flashes  the  savage  weapons  we  have 
been  hiding.” 

We  like  to  believe  in  our  own  sufficiency,  that 
so  long  as  our  churches  and  missions  are  flourish¬ 
ing,  and  our  Church  membership  is  increasing, 
we  are  very  apt  to  imagine  that  all  is  right,  as  it 
appears  on  the  surface,  but  these  violent  outbursts 
of  war  and  destruction,  show  us  how  the  spirit  of 
paganism  is  still  in  the  heart  of  the  nation. 
However  much  it  hurts,  therefore,  we  ifiust  face 
the  horrid  truth  that  civilization  never  has  been 
Christian  for  the  universally  accepted  maxim  of 
the  most  enlightened  nations  hitherto  has  been, 
“If  you  would  labor  for  peace,  prepare  for  war.” 
Now  the  principle  of  this  is  first  and  last  pure 
militarism.  Hence  it  is  that  militarism,  in  one 
form  or  another,  has  been  the  guiding  principle  of 
the  nations.  Germany  has  only  been  the  most 
powerful  exponent  and  has  the  sincerity  and  un¬ 
blushing  boldness  to  write  it  large  on  her  banners 
before  the  world  as  the  acknowledged  principle 


138 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


of  her  nation’s  struggle.  Christians  were  not 
shocked  at  the  presence  of  this  hidden  spirit  till 
the  tide  of  war  broke  out  and  began  to. flow,  and 
the  blood  of  our  own  people  began  to  crimson  the 
ground,  when  everybody  is  ready  to  ask,  with 
righteous  indignation,  “Who  is  responsible  for 
this  war,  this  inhuman  carnage?”  Webelievethat 
the  only  true  answer  to  this  question  is  “the 
common  greed  of  the  nations  is  responsible  for  it, 
of  which  Germany  is  the  most  pronounced  ex¬ 
ponent.”  She  alone,  has  the  brutality  to  act  out 
her  pagan  creed,  that  “Might  is  right”  and  so 
demands  what  the  power  of  the  sword  can  win; 
the  awful  scenes  on  which  we  are  compelled,  to 
gaze  this  day,  are  but  the  most  perfect  expression 
of  this  creed  that  the  world  ever  has  seen.  This 
war,  then,  is  the  awful  punishment  of  the. world’s 
sin  of  coveteousness,  and  it  is  only  the  nation  that 
is  without  this  sin  that  can  point  the  finger  of  scorn 
and  cast  the  first  stone, — the  burden  of  this  sin 
is  on  the  conscience  of  the  nations.  Here,  then, 
is  the  explanation  of  our  text,  Christ  the  Prince 
of  Peace,  with  His  prophetic  vision  looked  down 
the  lapse  of  ages  and  saw  the  crimson  stream  of 
blood  that  would  stain  the  history  of  men,  before 
“His  peace”  could  dominate  the  earth,  and  the 
true  progress  of  the  nations  could  be  obtained, 
when  men  would  “beat  their  swords  into  plough 
shares  and  their  spears  into  pruning  ^  hooks, 
neither  should  they  learn  war  any  more.”  Let 
us  not  think,  then,  for  one  moment  that  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  failed,  and  that  this  war  has  come 


Peace  Through  the  Szvord 


139 


because  it  has  failed.  No,  it  has  come  be¬ 
cause  the  Christian  nations  have  failed  to  be 
Christians.  May  we  not  go  further  and  say, 
that  it  is  the  indelible  proof  of  Christianity,  in 
that  it  is  a  hideous  object  lesson  to  the  whole 
world  of  the  final  results  of  selfishness  and  ma¬ 
terialism,  when  they  are  followed  as  the  guiding 
principles  of  life,  of  the  ruin  and  desolation  that 
comes  to  a  man  or  a  nation  when  the  principles 
of  love  and  brotherhood  are  forgotten. 

We  must  remember  that  the  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  not  only  a  kingdom  upon  earth  of  peace, 
but  a  kingdom  to  be  established  by  peaceful 
methods  and  means.  It  was  thought  by  some 
who  imagined  that  they  read  aright  the  signs  of 
the  times,  that  this  time  was  even  now  dawning 
upon  the  earth,  since  so  many  had  so  labored  for 
peace,  that  so  strong  a  peace  sentiment  had  been 
created  and  very  widely  spread;  so  much  so,  in¬ 
deed,  that  congresses,  parliaments,  kings  and 
statesmen  recognized  and  felt  it,  a  thing  to  be 
desired  above  all  things.  Treaties  were  made, 
societies  formed,  and  courts  established  in  the 
interests  of  peace.  It  seemed  that  the  golden 
age  had  come  or  was  about  to  come  in  the  near 
future.  War,  at  all  events,  among  Christian 
nations  seemed  a  thing  almost  impossible.  Yes, 
so  we  dreamed  and  hoped  and  ventured  to  be¬ 
lieve,  till  the  falsity  and  adder’s  poison  in  the 
hearts  of  the  German  rulers  were  revealed,  when 
like  a  thunder  crash,  the  sound  of  tumult  was 
heard,  and  the  most  collossal  war  in  the  history 


140 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


of  the  world  was  begun,  the  most  solemn  treaties 
were  as  nothing,  war  was  at  our  gates,  a  midnight 
darkness  of  ruin  and  desolation  overshadowed 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  prosperous  portions 
of  the  earth.  Its  best  possessions,  its  artistic 
treasures,  its  choicest  works  of  art,  were  pillaged 
and  destroyed  and  worst  of  all,  the  homes  of  its 
innocent  and  peaceful  people,  were  violated, — 
while  murder  and  the  barbarism  of  the  savage 
ruled  the  hour,  till  the  whole  world  stood  aghast 
at  the  atrocities  committed. 

And  what,  we  may  ask,  is  the  lesson  we  learn 
from  the  daily  records  we  receive  of  the  horrors 
of  this  present  war?  It  is  surely  a  fearful  object 
lesson  to  the  whole  world  of  the  result  of  men’s 
trusting  to  the  power  of  the  sword.  The  prin¬ 
ciple  of  the  arbitrament  of  war  has  been  revealed 
in  all  its  hideous  reality  before  the  eyes  of  the 
assembled  nations  of  the  world.  Christ  came  to 
bring  us  peace,  but  peace  can  come  only  where 
there  are  conditions  of  peace,  and  men  must  be 
first  taught  to  desire  these  conditions,  before  the 
mantle  of  peace  can  rest  upon  the  earth. 

So  we  often  require  to  be  shown  the  anguish 
and  the  bitterness,  the  awful  ruin  and  waste  and 
the  unutterable  barbarity  of  war,  before  we  can 
be  driven  to  stretch  out  our  hands  and  offer  up  our 
prayers  for  the  love  and  union  and  brotherhood 
that  Christ  came  to  bring.  For  we  must  remem¬ 
ber  that  Christ  was  born,  not  only  to  be  our 
Saviour,  but  also  to  be  our  Judge.  In  every 
event  happening  in  the  world,  He  comes  to  us  as 


Peace  Through  the  Sword 


14 1 


our  Saviour  or  our  Judge;  as  St.  James  says, 
“Whence  come  wars  and  fightings  among  you? 
come  they  not  of  your  lusts  and  your  pleasures?” 
“Ye  fight  and  war, ”  he  says,  “and  have  not  be¬ 
cause  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye  may  consume  it  in  your 
pleasures.”  These  wars  and  tumults  are  signs 
of  God’s  merciful  judgments.  So  these  awful 
happenings,  are  intended  to  be  as  advents  of 
Christ  to  the  world.  As  God  says  through  the 
mouth  of  His  prophet,  Isaiah,  “When  Thy 
judgments  are  upon  the  earth,  then  will  men 
learn  righteousness.  ”  Great  struggles  and  great 
catastrophes,  are  to  the  eye  of  faith,  instruments 
in  His  hands,  who  remaineth  forever  King  of  His 
people.  If  we  are  then  Christian  people,  we 
should  be  ready  in  a  humble  and  teachable  way, 
to  learn  and  profit  by  the  discipline  which  God 
is  sending  upon  us  this  day.  We  remember  the 
battle  cry  of  the  great  fore-runner  of  Christ;  it 
was  “repent  ye,  for  the  kingdom  of  Heaven 
draweth  nigh.”  So  today,  John  the  Baptist 
must  come  before  Christ,  that  is,  the  sword  of 
discipline  and  humiliation  must  come  before  the 
peace  of  which  the  angels  sang  on  the  first  Christ¬ 
mas  morn,  can  come  upon  the  earth.  We  must 
be  very  blind  if  we  do  not  see  that  this  great  crisis, 
may  be  the  fore-runner  of  a  time  of  great  spiritual 
blessing  to  the  world,  but  especially  to  the 
English  speaking  race  which  we  believe  form  to¬ 
gether  the  van-guard  of  civilization.  So  it  is  a 
day  of  great  opportunity  to  enable  us  to  see  more 
clearly  the  “things  that  belong  to  our  peace.” 


142 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


For  we,  as  Christians  must  believe  that  for 
ourselves  as  for  those  of  our  motherland,  our 
greatest  gift,  our  best  treasure  is  our  knowledge 
of  Christ.  For  that  which  we  owe  to  Him  has 
been  and  is  today  the  mainspring  of  our  freedom 
and  progress,  the  secret  of  our  moral  growth  and 
the  foundation  of  our  strength  as  a  nation.  If, 
therefore,  we  as  a  people  and  nation  are  to  keep 
and  maintain  a  position  among  the  nations, 
it  is  to  be  done,  not  by  naval  or  military  strength, 
not  by  dreadnaughts  nor  aeroplanes,  nor  military 
resources  of  any  kind,  but  by  spiritual  life  and 
power  drawn  from  Him  who  was  and  is  the 
Prince  of  Peace. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  men  were  there 
such  wonderful  opportunities  for  spreading  the 
gospel  of  peace  and  good  will  to  the  world,  as 
there  are  this  day;  for  a  door  that  is  wide  and 
effectual  is  opened  in  all  the  world,  the  great  war, 
in  a  very  real  sense,  has  awakened  the  brother¬ 
hood  of  the  nations,  it  has  stirred  their  sympathy 
in  the  maintenance  of  freedom,  truth,  and  justice 
by  the  endeavor  they  have  made  to  put  down  the 
spirit  of  pride  and  arrogance  and  greed  and 
violence  and  cruel  oppression.  The  loving  sons 
of  the  great  motherland  have  come  from  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth,  the  United  States  ol  America 
has  marshalled  her  mighty  engines  of  war  and 
summoned  her  loyal  sons  to  stand  by  Britain  and 
her  allies  in  their  great  struggle  for  righteousness. 
This  will  strengthen  the  bonds  that  unite  the 
English  speaking  race  and  further  the  efforts 


Peace  Through  the  Sword 


H3 


which  are  being  made  to  insure  the  peace  of  the 
world  and  bring  the  Gospel  of  peace  to  all  nations. 
We  must  remember  that  the  birth  of  Christ  was  a 
beginning  and  not  an  ending.  It  was  a  beginning 
of  cross-bearing  and  of  much  tribulation,  of  many 
sorrows,  many  burdens  to  be  borne  and  this  be¬ 
cause  it  was  the  promise  of  those  spiritual,  eternal 
joys,  into  which  men  enter  only  through  the  gate 
of  trial  and  suffering.  The  great  gifts  of  peace 
and  love  cannot  be  received  till  the  spirit  is  pre¬ 
pared  to  receive  them.  “Peace  on  earth”  came  to 
the  world  1900  years  ago,  but  God  cannot  force 
peace  till  the  world  is  ready  to  receive  it.  It  will 
be  ours  only  when  we  establish  justice  and  right¬ 
eousness  amongst  men,  it  can  come  to  us  only 
when  we  have  learned  where  our  strength  is 
found.  Then  will  our  peace  come  like  a  river. 
After  the  storm  will  come  the  calm,  the  “haven 
where  we  would  be.  ”  A  story  is  told  of  a  traveller 
being  in  one  of  the  historic  bell-towers  of  stricken 
Belgium  while  the  chimes  were  being  rung.  The 
ringers  plied  their  vigorous  strokes  and  there 
thundered  forth  peal  after  peal,  a  perfect  babble 
of  unmeaning  sounds  which  seemed  naught  but 
a  bellowing  crash  of  deafening  discords;  yet  as 
the  wonderful  sound  floated  out  over  the  peaceful 
valley  it  seemed  like  a  benison  from  on  high  and 
blended  into  the  soft  notes  of  an  exquisite  melody. 
It  rolled  out  its  beautiful  harmony  as  though  it 
might  be  the  rapture  of  an  angel’s  song  chanting 
“Peace  and  good  will  toward  men,”  for  it  was 

“Peace,  perfect  peace,  o’er  this  dark  world  of  sin. 

The  blood  of  Jesus  whispers  peace  within.” 


I 


144 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


In  this  great  struggle,  the  great  question  is 
whether  the  Gospel  of  the  Great  Peace  Giver 
shall  dominate  the  earth;  but  may  we  not  believe 
and  hope  and  pray,  that  God  will  bring  out  of 
this  chaos  an  abiding  peace,  even  that  “Peace  of 
God  which  passeth  all  understanding.” 


v 


XVI 


VICTORY  IN  SEEMING  DEFEAT 

Now  is  come  salvation  and  strength ,  and  the  kingdom  of  our 
God ,  and  the  power  of  His  Christ,  for  they  loved  not  their  lives 
unto  the  death.  Therefore,  rejoice  ye  Heavens  and  ye  that  dwell 
in  them. 

REV.  XII,  1012 

IT  is  a  most  significant  fact,  and  worthy  our 
deepest  thought,  that  the  most  jubilant  and 
triumphant  book  of  our  Bible,  is  the  Book 
of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John  the  Divine,  though 
it  is  filled  with  woes  and  bitter  tribulations;  yet, 
through  all  there  runs  an  irresistible  note  of 
gladness;  till  it  seems  like  a  great  choral  of 
jubilant  praise  rising  up  to  the  very  throne  of 
God.  Yet  that  book  was  written,  we  know,  in 
perhaps  the  very  darkest  hour  of  the  Church’s 
history,  for  the  sword  of  persecution  had  just 
done  its  most  cruel  work,  the  sands  of  the  Colos¬ 
seum  at  Rome,  had  run  red  with  Christian  blood, 
and  the  insane  lust  of  the  monster  Nero  had 
loosened  his  hungry  lions  to  satisfy  his  wanton 
cruelty  on  the  bodies  of  Christians.  A  worse 
than  Egyptian  darkness  had  come  upon  God’s 
Church  which  no  doubt  the  beloved  apostle  had 
seen  with  his  own  eyes  previous  to  his  banish¬ 
ment  to  the  lisle  of  Patmos.  Indeed,  the  whole 

H5 


146 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


earth  lay  “in  darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of 
death;”  the  moral  degradation  of  Rome,  was 
beyond  the  power  of  words  to  describe.  St.  Paul 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Romans,  gives  us  an  idea  of 
the  depths  to  which  it  had  fallen.  It  seemed  as 
though  it  had  sounded  the  very  depths  of  human 
depravity.  Philanthropy  was  practically  un¬ 
known.  Chastity  was  not  recognized.  Truth 
and  honor  were  things  of  the  past,  indeed,  life  was 
regarded  as  a  game,  a  most  brutal  game  at  that. 
Yet,  how  significant  it  is  for  us  to  remember  that 
in  this  most  tragic  hour,  in  the  very  midst  of  this 
hopeless  chaos  of  human  life,  the  eagle  eye  of  the 
great  apostle  was  able  to  look  through  the.  dark¬ 
ness,  till  he  saw  the  light  of  a  triumphant  victory , 
he  looked  forward  to  that  time  when  ‘  a^  great 
multitude  which  no  man  could  number,”  of  all 
peoples,  kingdoms  and  tongues  should  be  gath¬ 
ered  before  the  throne  of  God,  giving  “blessing, 
glory,  wisdom,  thanksgiving  and  honor  and 
power  and  might  unto  our  God  forever  and  even 
No  earthly  darkness  could  cloud  the  glory  of  his 
sacred  vision,  of  the  final  triumph  of  God  s  king¬ 
dom  in  the  world.  Hence  his  jubilant  praise 
and  never  ceasing  joy.  It  is  interesting,.  as  has 
been  said,  to  notice  that  it  was  from  this  same 
book  of  Revelation,  that  Handel  drew  the  in¬ 
spiration  for  his  greatest  work,  The  Hallelujah 
Chorus ,  the  greatest  praise  choral  that  ever  was 
written.  He,  too,  like  St.  John,  looked  forward 
to  the  final  victory,  and  so  lifted  up  his  voice  to 
shout  in  jubilant  praise  “Hallelujah!  For  the 
Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth!” 


Victory  in  Seeming  Defeat 


H  7 


When  we  look  over  the  troubled  sea  of  human 
life  today,  we  may  believe  that  never  since  the 
days  of  St.  John  was  there  a  more  perfect  parallel 
to  the  sickening  barbarities  of  the  days  of  Nero 
and  the  Huns  of  ancient  history,  than  is  revealed 
to  us  today  in  the  unparalleled  atrocities  of  the 
Neros  and  Huns  of  our  day.  Indeed,  we  have  to 
transport  ourselves  in  thought  to  the  devastated 
fields  of  Belgium,  think  of  its  ruined  homes,  its 
martyred  women,  its  butchered  children,  its 
poisoned  wells,  its  ruined  temples,  to  find  con¬ 
ditions  similar  to  those  which  drew  forth  the 
sublime  visions  of  St.  John.  Indeed,  we  can 
imagine  somewhat  of  his  spirit  throbbing  in  the 
breasts  of  a  congregation  of  Belgians,  gathered  in 
one  of  their  half-demolished  cathedrals,  singing 
there,  as  an  expression  of  their  abiding  faith, 
The  Hallelujah  Chorus.  But  the  thing  which  is 
of  the  most  supreme  importance  for  us  to  notice 
is,  that  this  jubilant  vision  of  the  apostle  which 
was  so  vitally  connected  with  the  era  of  tragedy 
through  which  the  Church  was  passing,  was,  he 
believed,  one  of  its  necessary  results ,  in  that  “the 
great  multitude  which  no  man  could  number,  ” 
were  those  who  “had  come  out  of  great  tribulation 
and  had  made  their  robes  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb.”  To  the  mere  literalist,  these  words  may 
have  little  meaning,  but  to  those  who  interpret 
them  spiritually,  they  are  filled  with  the  most 
intense  significance.  They  tell  of  a  most  glorious 
interpretation,  for  this  great  number  of  which  the 
apostle  speaks,  had  not  only  listened  with  docility 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


and  reverence  to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  seen  His 
miracles  of  mercy,  followed  Him  in  His  life  °1 
doing  good  to  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  the  suffer¬ 
ing,  and  the  outcast,  but  they  had  followed  Him 
to  the  Cross,  they  had  shared  with  Him  the  sacri¬ 
fice  of  His  life.  This  was,  in  the  opostle’s  vision 
their  supreme  glory,  in  this  unselfish  suffering 
for  others  they  had  reached  the  very,  highest 
reward  of  human  life.  As  he  tells  us  himself  in 
the  words  of  Christ,  “as  He  laid  down  His  life 
for  us,  so  should  we  lay  down  our  lives  for  the 
brethren,”  which  brings  to  our  minds  that  wonder¬ 
ful  paradox  of  the  Master,  “He  that  saveth  his 
life,  shall  lose  it,  but  he  that  loseth  his  life,  for  my 
sake  shall  find  it.”  Yes,  as  St.  Paul  says,  “the 
sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to 
be  compared  with  the  glory  that  shall  be^  re¬ 
vealed.”  It  was  the  illumination  of  this  “ex¬ 
ceeding  glory”  that  enabled  him,  as  he  says,  to 
“rejoice  with  joy  exceeding”  to  look  out  and 
beyond  the  things  of  time,  to  those  things  which 
shall  be  hereafter.  Let  us  be  assured  that  no 
greater  blessing  could  come  to  us,  and  to  the 
Church  throughout  the  world,  than  that  we 
could  be  imbued  with  this  spirit  of  St.  John,  this 
day,  that  we  could  interpret  the  life  of  the  twen¬ 
tieth  century  as  St.  John  did  the  life  of  the  first. 

But  alas,  how  great  is  our  blindness!  For,  to 
many,  there  are  no  sounds  but  those  of  earth. 
There  are  no  “mighty  thunderings”  from  on 
high,  no  Heavenly  voices  speaking  through  the 
midnight ;  for  they  can  see  nothing  but  the  deluge 


Victory  in  Seeming  Defeat 


149 


of^blood,  nothing  but  death  and  slaughter,  hear 
nothing  but  the  shriek  of  shell,  and  roar  of  cannon. 
Their  eyes  are  so  dimmed  and  their  ears  are  so 
deafened  by  the  earthly  aspects  of  the  wondrous 
tragedy,  that  they  have  neither  eyes  to  see  nor 
ears  to  hear  anything  of  the  Heavenly  Glory  of 
this  wondrous  hour,  this  hour  of  supreme  sacrifice, 
this  great  Calvary  of  the  nations. 

Yes,  they  see  the  wounded  hands  and  feet  of 
those  who  have  been  taken  down  from  the  cross, 
see  the  patients,  wounded  and  torn,  lying  in  the 
hospitals;  but  they  do  not  see  the  glory  of  their 
sacrifice,  not  the  true  glory  of  the  cause  for 
which  they  suffered.  They  do  not  see  the 
ministering  hands  of  Christ  in  the  devotion 
of  the  nurses,  and  that  they  too  are 
bearing  their  cross  of  sacrifice.  They  feel,  in 
thought,  the  physical  pain  of  the  men  in  the 
trenches,  but  not  the  joyful  thrill  and  glory  of 
their  patriotism,  the  ecstacy  of  their  courage, 
not  the  lofty  spirit  that  animates  their  breasts. 
In  a  word,  they  ean  see  all  the  wrath  and  the 
bitterness,  the  depravity  and  brutality  which  is 
seen;  but  they  forget  to  look  at  the  Divine  side  of 
the  picture, — the  love  of  country,  the  loyalty,  the 
heroism,  the  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  a  great 
idea,  and  that  faithfulness  unto  death  that  must 
give  angels  joy.  Are  we  wrong,  then,  if  we  ven¬ 
ture  to  trace  a  parallel  between  the  Church  in  St. 
John’s  day  and  our  own?  Never,  since  St.  John’s 
day  have  the  gates  of  Hell  been  so  widely  opened. 
Indeed,  it  would  seem  as  though  the  words  of  the 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


150 


ancient  prophet  had  been  fulfilled  for  us,  and 
that  “Hell  had  enlarged  herself ”  so  that  an 
appendix  must  be  added  to  the  world  s  history  of 
inhuman  horrors,  enacted  in  cold  blood  by  a  so- 
called  Christian  nation  and  led  on  by  the  Nero 

of  our  day.  . 

But  on  the  other  hand,  when  in  all  history, 

since  Christ  died  upon  the  cross,  has  there  been 
such  a  glorious  manifestation  of  His  spirit. 
Think  of  the  glorious  sacrifices  that  have  been 
offered  up  in  His  name!  Even  the  so-called 
heathen  nations  have  enrolled  themselves  as 
willing  defenders  of  a  sacred  cause,  have  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  Christian  nations 
in  shedding  their  blood  for  the  life  of  the  world, 
have  poured  out  their  willing  sacrifices  of  men  and 
money,  that  truth  and  righteousness  might  re¬ 
main  to  bless  the  earth.  When  we  see  such  a 
widespread  manifestation  of  God  s  spirit  working 
in  the  hearts  of  men,  may  We  not  believe  that 
great  things  are  being  done  whereof  we  may  re¬ 
joice?  May  we  not  believe  that  Christ  is  speak¬ 
ing  to  us,  and  bidding  us  “lift  up  our  heads  for 
our  redemption  draweth  nigh?’’  And  should 
not  our  faith  share  in  the  jubilant,  vision  of  St. 
John  that  the  work  of  Christ  is  being  done  and 
fulfilled  in  these  latter  days,  in  His  own  way, 
through  the  cross  and  that  “Now  is  come  salva¬ 
tion  and  strength  and  the  kingdom  of  our  God 
and  of  His  Christ  in  that  His  servants  have 
loved  not  their  lives  unto  the  death.” 

And  may  we  not  go  further  and  continue  our 


Victory  in  Seeming  Defeat  151 


parallel  with  the  days  of  St.  John?  He  looked 
on  the  glorious  instances  of  martyrdom  of  his 
day  as  an  outcome  of  the  terrors  with  which  they 
were  surrounded  and  enabled  them  to  sing  their 
hymns  of  joy  on  the  bloody  sands  of  the  Arena. 
So  may  we  not  believe  today,  that  the  very 
awful  nature  of  the  struggle,  its  ruthless  barbarity, 
its  manifest  injustice,  its  open,  fraud,  deceit  and 
its  heartless  inhumanity  had  its  effect  in  being 
a  spur  to  the  latent  heroism  of  the  men,  lifted 
up  their  ideals,  fired  their  blood  to  noble  deeds, 
lifted  them  out  the  pit  of  indolent  ease  and  self- 
indulgence,  and  planted  their  feet  on  the  firm 
ground  of  a  noble  resolve  of  trying  to.  do  some¬ 
thing  for  others,  if  need.be,  to  give  their  lives  for 
home  and  country.  So  it  is,  that  God  has  turned 
“the  wrath  of  man  to  His  own  praise,  and  in  a 
word,  the  words  of  the  prophet  have  been  fulfilled, 
“a  nation  has  been  born  in  a  day”  and  this  great 
cross  of  the  nations  has  opened  the  gates  of 
Heaven  to  unnumbered  souls  .  .  Does  it  not 

seem,  then,  the  question  of  a  fool  or  a  madman, 
when  he  looks  at  all  this,  to  ask  is  not  Christian¬ 
ity  a  failure?”  For  never,  in  all  its  history,  was 
it  more  gloriously  triumphant,  from  a  human 
standpoint,  a  more  complete  success.  For  if  the 
cross  is  the  symbol  of  Christ,  and  sacrifice  and 
Christianity  go  hand  in  hand;  then  never  before 
has  so  great  a  multitude  of  “all  nations,  kingdoms 
people,  and  tongues,”  been  so  eager  to  lay  down 
their  lives  for  their  fellowmen. 

Consider,  too,  what  this  great  war  has  done  to 


152 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


break  down  the  barriers  between  man  and  man, 
and  to  foster  the  cause  of  unity  and  brotherhood 
of  men.  Men  have  been  drawn  together,  not 
only  in  outward  form,  by  unity  of  purpose,  but 
they  have  been  the  nobility  of  a  noble  idea,  viz. : 
the  struggle  for  truth  and  righteousness  and  liber¬ 
ty  and  brotherhood.  These  noble  desires  must 
leave  an  indelible  stamp  on  their  lives,  and  if 
they  are  spared  to  return,  will,  we  believe,  bring 
forth  fruit  in  after  years.  This  surely  will  help 
to  prepare  the  world  for  the  establishment  of  that 
reign  of  peace  and  good  will,  which  Christ  came 
to  bring  to  all  people  when  “the  sword  shall  be 
beaten  into  plough  shares  and  the  spears  into 
pruning  hooks  and  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the 
sea.”  And  does  this  not  bring  to  our  minds  the 
sublime  utterance  of  Christ  Himself,  when  He  in 
prophetic  vision,  the  final  accomplishment  of 
His  great  work,  and  exclaimed,  “If  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth  I  will  draw  all  men  unto  me.” 
May  not  the  noble  sacrifices  of  today  be  in  a 
sense  the  lifting  up  of  Christ  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  and  teaching  them  that  Christ  is  their 
life,  their  only  life,  and  that  it  is  in  Him  alone 
that  all  nations  are  to  be  blessed  that  He  may  see 
the  great  travail  of  His  soul  and  be  satisfied  and 
that  as  St.  John  says,  the  “Heavens  may  re¬ 
joice  and  all  that  dwell  in  them.” 


XVII 

QUIETNESS  AND  CONFIDENCE 

In  quietness  and  confidence  shall  be  your  strength. 

isaiah  xxx,  15 

NEVER  since  the  Gospel  was  first  given  to  the 
world  has  there  been  such  need  for  us  to 
proclaim  its  fundamental  truths  as  Chris¬ 
tians  and  as  believers  in  the  spiritual  evolution  of 
man  and  the  ultimate  triumph  of  good  in  the 
world.  There  are  always  certain  truths  that  we 
must  firmly  grasp  to  steady  us  in  times  of  peril  in 
the  great  rush  of  events  if  we  would  be  saved 
from  doubt  and  despair.  The  first  truth  is 
“that  the  Lord  is  King  be  the  earth  never  so  un¬ 
quiet,”  and  therefore  because  he  is  King,  good 
always  must  come  out  of  evil.  Because  of  the 
divine  life  inherent  in  man,  there  is  an  irresistible 
force  in  humanity  which  always  lifts  us  to  a  higher 
level,  however  stormy  and  persistent  the  down¬ 
ward  pressure  may  be.  The  upward  tendency 
may  be  long  delayed  to  human  eyes,  the  visible 
rebound  may  not  occur  even  in  a  generation  or 
within  a  century,  but  inevitably  it  comes  as  sure 
as  the  dawn  follows  the  sunset,  and  for  the  same 
reason,  namely:  that  a  new  light  might  shine 
upon  the  world.  As  the  blast  of  the  wind  and 


153 


*54 


Saved  as  by  Fire  • 


the  storm  on  the  tree-tops  makes  the  roots  ex¬ 
pand  and  take  a  deeper  grip  on  the  underlying 
soil,  so  the  bitter  experiences  of  defeat  and  disaster 
are  used  to  secure  a  finer  foot-hold  on  permanent 
foundations  of  the  things  which  cannot  pass 
away,  and  so  turn  the  eyes  from  the  darkness  of 
earth’s  securities  to  a  brighter  light  and  to  am¬ 
bitions  which  do  not  pass  away.  Hence,  it  comes 
that  these  very  defeats  and  disasters  are  really 
intended  to  be  messages  of  God,  they  represent 
the  much  tribulation  which  we  are  told  that  we 
need  in  order  that  we  may  enter  into  His  King¬ 
dom, — that  is,  submit  ourselves  to  His  Law  and 
recognize  His  rule  over  the  kingdoms  of  men. 
This  is  the  only  foundation  that  may  not  nor 
cannot  be  moved,  for  “other  foundation  can  no 
man  lay.” 

Since  the  world  began  men  have  tried  to  build 
apart  from  God,  and  Cain  and  his  profane  builders 
of  the  olden  time  were  the  pioneers  of  a  mighty 
host.  When  in  every  age  men  have  set  out  to 
make  for  themselves  a  name  by  building  on  ma¬ 
terial  foundations,  one  after  another  they  come 
to  nought.  Their  tower  of  strength  has  fallen 
and  buried  them  in  their  own  confusion.  God’s 
people  of  old  were  wrecked  on  the  rock  of  ma¬ 
terialism;  so  too,  Assyria,  Babylon,  Greece,  Rome, 
Spain  and  France  in  former  days — though  led  on 
by  the  most  skilled  and  efficient  Generals  the 
world  has  ever  seen — have  proved  by  their  own 
destruction  that  it  is  “righteousness  only  that 
exalteth  a  nation.” 


Quietness  and  Confidence 


155 


But  it  is  reserved  to  our  own  day  to  find  a  na¬ 
tion  building  or  attempting  to  build  on  this  rock 
of  destruction  which  has  been  the  ruin  of  nations 
in  all  time.  Hence,  we  see  that  Germany  today 
is  following  in  the  wake  of  a  long  line  of  nations 
that  have  vainly  attempted  to  do  an  impossible 
thing,  namely,  to  build  up  a  nation  on  material 
foundations.  She,  although  a  professedly  Chris¬ 
tian  nation,  openly  has  cast  aside  her  faith 
in  Christian  principles  and  asserted  her  belief 
in  the  invincible  might  of  the  mailed  fist  of  her 
conquering  legions.  She  practically  owns  no 
power  separate  from  the  sword,  so  it  comes  that 
she  is  the  most  powerful  exponent  of  material 
might  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  She  has 
marshalled  her  mighty  hosts  to  prove  to  the 
world  that  she  is  mistress,  and  by  the  might  of 
her  own  arm  she  is  practically  saymg  to  the 
Christian  Nations  what  Sennacherib  said  to  God’s 
people  of  old,  “What  confidence  is  this  wherein 
thou  trusteth?” 

She  is  being  weighed  this  day  in  the  balances 
of  God  who  never  yet  suffered  his  cause  to  fail  or 
permitted  evil  in  the  end  to  triumph.  It  is  He 
only  who  can  bring  good  out  of  evil,  light  out  of 
darkness,  and  order  out  of  chaos.  We  may  be 
well  assured  that  out  of  what  seems  to  us  the 
barren  waste  of  this  hopeless  destruction,  the 
seething  chaos  of  this  terrible  war,  God  is  in  his 
own  way  and  in  his  own  time  working  out  an 
untold  blessing  for  the  world.  After  the  storm, 
the  calm;  after  the  cloud,  the  sunshine;  every- 


^6 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


thing  is  by  inexorable  law.  It  is  not  the  Kaiser, 
let  us  remember,  but  the  Lord  God  Almighty  that 
still  governs  the  earth.  The  pillar  of  cloud  and 
fire  still  goes  before  God’s  chosen  people,  guiding 
them  to  the  promised  land.  “Our  little  visions 
have  their  day,  they  have  their  day  and  cease 
to  be,  but  thou,  Oh  Lord  art  more  than  they”. 
Time  is  our  limit.  But  God’s  designs  sweep 
eternity  in  their  mighty  embrace,,  so  we  may  rest 
secure  in  the  darkest  day  and  in  the  blackest 
night  for  God’s  arm  “is  not  shortened  that  it 
cannot  sa\e,  nor  his  ear  heavy  that  he  cannot 
hear.”  “In  quietness  and  confidence  shall  be 
your  strength,”  for  the  Most  High  ruleth  over 
the  Kingdoms  of  men,  though  the  very  earth  be 
moved  for  “His  way  is  in  the  sea.  His  path  in 
the  great  waters  and  His  footsteps  are  not  known’ 
Here  is  the  anchor  of  our  life  that  never  yet  has 
moved  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  it  is  lack 
of  faith  in  God  which  is  not  only  the  curse  of 
Germany  but  the  curse  of  the.  world  this  day. 
It  is,  we  believe,  for  this  especially,  that  we  are 
being  scourged  in  order  that  from  this  baptism  of 
blood  we  may  rise  to  a  new  life  as  a  people  and  a 
nation. 

We  read  that  in  the  infancy  of  our  race,  the 
earth  was  so  filled  with  violence,  that  God 
cleansed  it  with  a  flood  and  the  purpose  of  his 
judgment  ever  has  been  as  we  are  told  “that 
men  may  learn  righteousness.”  So  let  us  be 
assured  it  is  today;  we  have  called  ourselves  a 
Christian  nation,  but  the  trouble  is  we  have  not 


Quietness  and  Confidence 


157 


been  Christians,  in  that  we  have  worshipped 
something  more  than  God.  We  practically  have 
put  our  strength  in  things  which  began  and  ended 
on  earth.  In  short,  we  have  been  thinking  only 
of  swelling  our  material  resources  by  land  and 
sea,  multiplying  our  armies,  building  our  dre&d- 
naughts,  strengthening  our  fortifications,  and  like 
the  Babel  builders  of  olden  time,  we  have  been 
endeavoring  to  build  ourselves  up  a  name  in  the 
midst  of  the  earth  as  the  most  formidable  nation 
of  our  time,  while  all  the  time  the  true  weapons 
of  our  warfare  were  left  rusting  in  the  scabbard. 
The  almonries  of  the  Church  were  empty,  its  mis¬ 
sions  starved,  the  waste  places  of  the  earth  were 
left  uncared  for.  The  great  work  which  God  had 
set  before  the  Christian  world  was  being  strangled 
in  its  birth,  “there  was  not  strength  to  bring  it 
forth.”  The  things  belonging  to  the  only  peace 
of  the  world  were  being  fast  hidden  from  its  eyes 
and  so,  through  God’s  mercy,  a  rude  awakening 
had  to  come .  Its  awful  intensity  may  tell  us  of  the 
depth  of  our  slumber;  its  resistless  violence,  of 
the  stubbornness  of  our  sin.  We  believe  that 
through  this  awful  carnage  which  is  now  sweeping 
over  the  earth,  God  is  preparing  great  things  for 
us  “for  which  we  may  rejoice.”  He  is  restoring 
the  life  of  the  world  by  revealing  to  us  its  true 
strength,  its  abiding  confidence.  Mankind  de¬ 
sired  that  which  was  seen  and  temporal,  has  put 
its  trust  in  “reeking  tube  and  iron  shard.”  And 
God  in  his  just  judgment  has  given  to  us  our  own 
desire,  but  has  shown  to  us  the  hellish  nature  of 


158 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


materialism,  the  awful  pit  of  degradation  into 
which  man  may  fall  once  separated  from  the 
restraining  influences  of  the  Christian  faith. 
The  object  lesson  has  been  so  awful,  demanding 
such  terrific  sacrifices  of  life  and  treasure,  as  to  fill 
the  whole  world  with  a  never-ceasing  memory  of 
its  inhuman  sacrilege.  Mankind  heretofore  has 
tried  to  live  under  the  profession  of  Christianity 
separated  from  its  power,  that  is,  has  separated 
its  life  from  its  ruling  and  has  failed  signally.  Our 
Western  civilization  has  been  built  on  the  form  of 
Godliness  without  its  power,  and  now  we  are 
brought  face  to  face  with  what  seems  its  collapse 
and  in  imminent  danger  of  appearing  a  spent  force. 
We  are  driven,  therefore,  to  seek  for  the  cause, 
and  we  find  that  it  is  because  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Christian  teaching  have  been  left 
out.  To  get  and  to  have  and  to  hold  for  ourselves, 
have  been  to  a  great  extent  the  basal  truths  of 
our  religion,  both  as  individuals  and  as  nations. 

We  have  come  this  day,  then  to  a  great  crisis  in 
our  History  as  a  Christian  nation  when  we  must 
study  anew  the  great  principles  of  our  faith  as 
revealed  to  us  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  con¬ 
cerning  the  brotherhood  of  the  race,  and  that  in 
the  midst  of  our  war-lo\ing,  self-seeking,  hostile, 
and  aggressive  age  there  will  be  built  a  strong, 
generous,  peace-loving  humanity  for  whom  peace 
will  not  be  a  beautiful  theory,  only,  but  a  virtual 
necessity  whose  strength  will  be  found  in 
quietness  and  confidence.  Up  to  this  time,  the 
cross  and  the  sword  have  been  entwined,  and 


Quietness  and  Confidence 


159 


material  forces  have  been  thought  necessary  for 
our  spiritual  as  well  as  our  temporal  advance¬ 
ment.  Now,  let  us  hope  and  pray  that  undee 
the  Providence  of  God  we  are  about  to  cut  thr 
cord  that  binds  the  sword  to  the  cross,  and  will 
try  the  developing  of  humanity  without  the  aid 
of  the  instruments  of  barbarism  and  the  cruel 
carnage  of  war.  We  must  never  forget  that 
Christ  imparted  to  His  Church  His  own  omnipo¬ 
tence  and  he  declared  that  all  power  was  com¬ 
mitted  unto  Him.  We  must  believe,  therefore 
that  Christ’s  gospel  has  the  power  to  break  down 
all  barriers  of  nations  and  races  and  tongues. 
God  only  knows  but  it  may  be,  then,  that  out  of 
this  present  cruel  carnage  and  murderous  hatred, 
there  will  come  a  recognition  of  the  folly  and 
crime  of  thus  arraying  brother  against  brother 
and  that  the  nations  will  take  council  one  of 
another  to  promote  good  fellowship  and  a  mutual 
understanding.  War  can  be  only  where  Christ 
is  not;  for  where  the  spirit  of  Christ  is,  there  must 
be  unity  and  peace,  so  we  must  believe  that  the 
great  power  which  is  to  unite  man  into  one 
brotherhood  is  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  It  is  He 
only  who  can  say, “ Peace  be  still,”  to  the  troubled 
waters,  and  it  may  be  to  teach  the  world  the 
recognition  ol  this  fact  that  the  winds  and  the 
waves  of  this  dread  war  are  now  threatening  us 
with  destruction  to  tell  us  that  it  is  God  and  not 
man  who  rules  over  the  kingdoms  of  men  and 
that  He  has  made  all  men  of  one  blood  so  that  in 
His  Kingdom  there  shall  be  neither  Teuton  or 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


160 


Slav,  Latin  or  Anglo-Saxon,  neither  East  nor 
West,  North  nor  South,  Jew  nor  Gentile;  but  all 
will  be  one  in  Christ  Jesus  “who  is  the  Light 
that  lighteneth  everything  that  cometh  into  the 
world.  ” 


XVIII 


HE  THAT  FINDETH  HIS  LIFE  SHALL 

LOSE  IT 


He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it:  and  he  that  loseth  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it. 


matt,  x,  39 


For  ye  are  dead ,  and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

COL.  Ill,  3 

I  am  dead”  said  an  enthusiastic  Frenchman 
to  an  American  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
“Yes,  I  am  dead  and  France  is  dead,  in  that 
we  are  ready  to  be  offered.  We  are  prepared  to 
die  that  France  may  live.  ”  In  one  sense,  this  was 
a  figure  of  speech,  since  he  was  still  standing  there 
in  the  flesh,  yet  in  another  it  was  a  literal  truth, 
for  he  had  in  spirit  made  the  great  sacrifice,  he 
had  in  will  and  purpose  offered  up  his  life.  He 
had  laid  it  on  the  altar  of  his  country,  a  willing 
sacrifice.  When  that  death  should  come,  was  to 
him  in  one  sense  of  no  moment,  or  so  far  as  his 
own  will  and  intention  were  concerned,  the  man 
was  already  dead.  The  result  of  this  mighty 
resolve,  was  a  rapt  enthusiasm,  his  individuality 
was  lost,  swallowed  up  in  the  intensity  of  a 
glorious  ideal, — the  freedom  of  his  country  and 
the  welfare  of  the  land  that  gave  him  birth.  And 

161 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


162 


what,  we  may  ask,  has  been  the  result  of  this 
sublime  patriotism  on  the  part  of  the  French 
people?  Why,  that  she  has  risen  in  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  world  till  she  stands  today  amongst 
the  greatest  nations  of  the  earth  for  the  splendor 
of  her  heroism,  the  dash  and  elan  of  her  troops 
and  the  unshrinking  courage  of  her  Commanders. 
In  a  word,  France  has  by  this  sacrifice  “found  her 
soul.”  Yes,  there  has  come  such  a  transformation 
to  the  whole  land  that  it  is  an  astonishment  to  us 
all  who  behold  it. 

But  this  spirit  of  sacrifice'  has,  thank  God,  not 
been  confined  to  France.  It  has  illuminated 
England,  it  has  warmed  and  thrilled  our  own 
loved  land,  it  has  extended  to  the  four  corners  of 
our  great  empire,  it  has  lifted  up  the  greater 
portion  of  the  earth  to  ideals  that  are  not  of  earth, 
to  a  love  of  truth  and  liberty  that  is  dearer  than 
life.  It  has  been  God’s  sifting  of  the  nations, 
through  which  he  has  riddled  out  the  chaff  of 
materialism  and  blown  it  to  the  four  winds,  and 
garnered  the  pure  grain  of  sacrifice  to  nurture 
the  earth. 

But  here,  let  me  remind  you,  that  this  is  but  a 
dramatic  illustration  of  a  law  of  our  common  life; 
for  we  know  that  no  great  success  is  ever  attained 
till  it  is  lifted  up  to  the  plane  of  sacrifice,  till  it  is 
made  an  ideal  to  which  everything  else  gives 
place.  No  great  thing  is  ever  done  when  it  is 
made  a  side  issue.  It  must  be  the  one  thing  that 
engrosses  our  own  chief  thought  and  that,  too,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  prepare  us  for  sacrifice.  We 


He  that  Findeth  his  Life  shall  Lose  it  163 


must  be  willing  to  put  aside  our  own  ease,  our 
own  comfort,  our  own  self-indulgence,  and  press 
on  to  the  goal  of  our  ambition,  resolved  to  let 
nothing  stand  in  the  way  of  that  which  we  have 
chosen  as  our  life  work.  With  this  concentration 
of  will  and  purpose,  there  is  scarcely  anything 
that  wre  cannot  attain.  This  is  the  reason  that 
what  we  call  our  self-made  men  are  so  often  the 
great  men  of  our  day, — because  they  have  made 
some  one  thing  the  ruling  ambition  of  their  lives. 
They  have  put  first  things  first,  and  have  kept 
them  there.  They  have  mounted  step  by  step, 
ne\er  turning  aside  to  the  right  or  to  the  left,  but 
simply  going  on,  surmounting  every  difficulty, 
learning  wisdom  by  their  mistakes;  but  rising 
higher  and  higher  till  victory  is  attained,  till  they 
sit  on  the  seat  of  the  mighty.  Is  this  not  the 
history  of  every  life  that  has  accomplished  great 
things  in  this  world  of  unceasing  toil?  Yes,  “by 
the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread”  was, 
and  is,  life’s  unalterable  law.  Let  us  be  assured 
that  we  never  can  obtain  bread  that  will  nourish 
us  in  any  other  way,  for  it  is  the  law  of  God. 

St.  Paul  gives  us  the  secret  of  his  wonderful  life, 
the  watch-word  of  his  success,  when  he  tells  us 
“This  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things  which 
are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  to  those  things 
which  are  before.  I  press  towards  the  mark  of 
the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus.”  He  counted  “all  things  but  loss”  that  he 
might  win  Christ,  and  this  is  the  sublime  truth 
which  Christ  himself  makes  clear  to  us  when  He 


164 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


says,  “He  that  saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he 
that  loseth  his  life  for  my  sake,  the  same  shall 
find  it.”  This  is  one  of  the  beautiful  paradoxes 
that  we  find  everywhere  in  Christ’s  teaching  in 
which  He  would  make  the  natural  tell  us  of  the 
spiritual  and  tell  us  of  the  real  things,— those 
things  that  do  not  pass  away.  So  here,  He  re¬ 
minds  us  of  the  true  life  that  only  comes  to  us  by 
a  supreme  effort  and  by  the  road  of  sacrifice. 

How  this  truth  is  brought  home  to  us  and  to 
the  world  this  day  in  the  cross-crowned  fields  of 
Flanders!  How  many  lives  have  been  saved  by 
being  lostf  Plucked,  no  doubt,  many  of  them,  as 
brands  from  the  burning, — from  an  empty  and 
purposeless  life  to  make  a  glorious  adventure,  to 
stand  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  were  fighting  for 
truth  and  liberty  and  the  crushing  of  tyranny  and 
lust  of  power.  Oh,  how  the  whole  world  rings 
today  with  their  noble  deeds!  Right  royally 
have  they  filled  out  their  noble  quest.  They 
have  given  their  lives  to  save  lives,  and  so  have 
won  a  life  eternal. 

We  are  so  bound  to  things  of  earth,  so  blinded 
with  temporal  things,  we  think  so  much  of 
our  losses  that  we  forget  our  gains.  We  always 
are  tempted  to  measure  our  blessings  by  earthly 
balances  and  judge  of  our  success  by  the  puny 
standards  of  men.  May  it  not  be  possible  that 
this  war,  terrible  as  it  is,  may  have  gathered  more 
good  grain  into  the  garner  of  Heaven  than  a 
hundred  years  of  peace?  Why?  Because  it  has 
been  the  means  of  saving  so  many  lives,  it  has 


He  that  Findeth  his  Life  shall  Lose  it  165 


put  truth  and  righteousness  before  men  as  some¬ 
thing  to  be  fought  for,  it  has  aroused  countless 
thousands  to  noble  deeds,  as  enthusiasts  in  a 
great  cause  for  which  they  have  not  hesitated  to 

give  their  lives.  . 

Here  is  the  answer  to  those  shallow  minds  who 
deem  this  war  the  deathblow  to  Christianity. 
It  is  the  most  glorious  triumph  that  it  has  ever 
seen;  it  tells  us  how  stern  is  the  voice  of  love.  It 
always  demands  first  place,  and  the  voice  that 
expresses  it  is  sacrifice.  Here,  then,  we  have  seen 
what  love  of  truth  and  righteousness  mean  to 
men.  Like  Mary  of  old,  they  have  broken  their 
precious  box  of  alabaster  at  the  Saviour  s  feet 
so  that  the  fragrance  has  filled  the  earth.  Aye, 
they  have  won  the  reward  of  that  greater  love  of 
which  the  Master  spake,  those  who  have  given 
their  livens  for  men,  so  in  losing  their  lives  they 
have,  in  truth,  found  them,  and  have  blessed  the 
whole  world  by  the  nobility  of  their  sacrifice. 
As  it  has  been  beautifully  said,  The  lives  of 
such  men  dropped  apparently  into  the  stream  of 
life  are  like  stones  into  the  stream  at  the  building 
of  a  bridge,”— stones  which  one  day  will  bear  the 
great  bridge  over  which  a  redeemed  and  recon¬ 
ciled  humanity  shall  pass  on  its  victorious  way. 
Thus  we  see  that  the  war,  in  spite  of  its  appalling 
terrors,  has  brought  with  it  an  untold  blessing, 
lor  it  has  taught  the  world  the  insecurity  of  tem¬ 
poral  things,  it  has  brought  them  face  to  face  with 
life  and  death  and  with  the  things  that  shall  be 
hereafter.  It  has,  we  believe,  opened  the  gates 


i66 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


of  Paradise  to  unnumbered  souls  and  started  them 
on  their  Heavenly  way.  Thus  it  comes  that  this 
sacrificial  host  have  been,  and  are,  unconsciously 
though  it  may  be,  among  the  greatest  mission¬ 
aries  of  time.  They  have  taught  the  world  that 
sacrifice  is  the  law  of  life,  that  inaction  means 
death,  that  we  are  pledged  to  unceasing  labor, 
that  the  do-nothings  are  the  get-nothings,  that 
those  who  live  only  to  consume,  and  think  only 
of  themselves  are  the  scabs  of  humanity  and  curse 
of  the  race. 

Another  great  blessing  of  the  war  has  been  to 
turn  the  tide  of  human  things  toward  spiritual 
things.  Material  things  have  received  a  deadly 
blow.  Men  and  women  have  become  alarmed  at 
living  only  for  earth,  because  so  many  millions 
have  been  swept  away.  Their  noble  sons  have 
been  called  Beyond  the  Veil  in  countless  thou¬ 
sands,  just  when  they  were  in  their  prime  and 
vigor  of  manhood.  What  does  it  all  mean? 
Has  the  God  in  whose  hand  our  breath  is,  for¬ 
gotten  to  be  gracious,  and  does  He  shut  up  His 
loving  kindness  in  displeasure?  Can  this  be  the 
end  of  all  this  matured  vigor,  this  splendid  heroism 
this  undaunted  courage,  this  enduring  love  even 
to  death?  Nay,  my  friends,  it  is  more  the  be¬ 
ginning  than  the  end.  God  could  never  allow 
this  precious  box  of  alabaster  to  be  broken  in 
vain ;  for  He  has  entered  into  a  life  which  is  eternal, 
one  of  higher  activities,  of  brighter  visions  of 
truth  to  an  estate  of  more  sanctified  labor  for  God 
and  humanity.  God  who  had  begun  that  good 


He  that  Findeth  his  Life  shall  Lose  it  167 


work  in  Him  on  earth  in  the  shedding  of  His 
blood  for  man,  will  now  confirm  it  unto  the  end. 
So  we  see  that  the  days  in  which  we  live,  are  as 
a  great  crucible  in  which  God  is  proving  men. 
They  are  being  made  to  pass  through  the  fire. 
The  handwriting  of  materialism  is  written  upon 
the  wall,  it  has  been  weighed  in  the  balances  and 
has  been  found  wanting:  it  is,  we  believe,  of 
blessing,  yet  of  trouble  and  of  anguish  and  of 
grave  responsibility.  Yes,  the  days  are  grave; 
let  our  speech  be  grave  too.  God  has  drawn  very 
nigh  us  and  we  to  Him.  It  is  His  trumpet  call 
to  us  to  use  all  our  gifts, — gifts  of  faith  and  hope 
and  love,  as  fellow  workers  with  God,  in  every 
department  of  life, — each  in  his  own  place,  and 
in  his  own  vocation — as  our  brave  soldiers  are 
doing — for  the  saving  of  the  world. 

Neither  God  nor  the  world  has  any  use  for 
sluggards, — for  idlers  in  the  vineyard.  They 
are  a  blot  and  a  disgrace  wherever  found,  they 
are  clogs  and  hindrances  on  every  field.  God 
has  said  to  each  one  of  us,  “Go  work  this  day  in 
my  vineyard.”  We  understand  this  well  enough 
in  our  temporal  life;  we  feel  that  there  is  nothing 
but  defeat  and  failure  for  the  man  who  refuses  not 
only  to  labor  but  labor  with  a  fixed  resolve  and  is 
ready  for  any  sacrifice  that  his  work  may  demand. 
This,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  law  of  life,  if  we 
would  accomplish  great  things  we  must  make  it 
the  ideal  of  our  life,  we  must  put  faith  and  hope 
and  confidence  into  our  work  and  carry  it  on  at 
every  cost,  even  at  times  of  life  itself.  It  is  such 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


1 68 


men  that  have  made  their  names  renowned  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  These  are  the  sacrifices 
that  generations  of  men  have  made  and  are 
making  this  day,  for  even  temporal  rewards  and 
the  things  that  pass  away.  Can  it  be  that  eternal 
rewards,  demand  less  labor? 

God  has  no  more  use  for  traitors  and  slackers 
and  do-nothings  than  our  armies  have  today. 
Neither  has  He  any  use  for  those  who,  though 
they  may  have  put  on  the  King’s  colors,  mark 
time  or  stand  at  ease.  He  wants  men  who  are 
prepared  to  fight  and,  what  is  more,  fight  to  a 
finish, — men  who  realize  the  sacred  nature  ol 
their  work  and  are  prepared  for  sacrifice,  ready 
to  lose  their  lives  that  they  may  gain  them. 
This  is  the  spirit  that  is  needed  in  our  religion 
this  day,  that  the  Church  of  God  may  catch  up 
some  of  the  enthusiasm  of  our  soldiers  and  share 
in  the  glory  of  their  sacrifice.  This  surely  is  the 
spirit  of  our  Master  who  died  that  we  might  live 
and  bid  us  take  our  Cross  and  follow  Him.  An 
estate  of  dull,  torpid  inaction,  a  nerveless  resting 
upon  the  things  that  have  been  done  for  us,  is  the 
curse  of  the  Church  this  day.  Let  us  remember 
that  all  that  Christ  has  done  for  us  will  only  serve 
for  our  condemnation,  except  so  far  as  we  make 
the  fruits  of  His  death  and  passion  to  be  revealed 
in  our  individual  lives  through  our  diligent  labor. 
God  is  omnipotent,  as  we  know;  yet  He  will  do 
nothing  by  Himself,  we  must  be  fellow-laborers 
with  Him  if  we  would  reap  at  the  great  day  of  His 
ingathering.  Let  us  be  assured  that  we  take  our 


He  that  Findeth  his  Life  shall  Lose  it  169 


religion  too  easily.  There  is  too  much  of  the 
soft,  goody-goody,  nerveless  pampering  element 
in  it;  too  much  preaching  of  smooth  things..  We 
have  not  the  courage  of  our  convictions,  so  it  has 
come  to  be  a  mere  sickly  sentiment  lacking  all 
enthusiasm  and  vital  power.  The  popular  idea 
of  a  Christian  is  the  direct  opposite  of  a  soldier. 
It  is  a  sad-faced,  gloomy,  timid,,  anaemic,  irre¬ 
solute  sort  of  an  individual  who  isolates  himse 
from  the  world,  who  spends  his  time  quoting 
scripture,  groaning  over  the  world’s  sin,  and 
thinking  only  of  his  salvation.  There  is  more 
hope  for  the  profligate  than  for  him.  Such,  we 
may  rest  assured,  was  not  the  religion,  of  Jesus 
nor  of  His  first  followers.  Such  a  religion  never 
will  conquer  the  world,  for  it  lacks  the  force  that 
is  required  to  overcome  evil,  it  lacks  the  true 
spirit  of  service,  the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  the  spirit 
of  Him  who  said,  “He  that  saveth  his  life  s“a J J 
lose  it,  and  he  who  loseth  his  life  for  My  sake  shall 

find  it.”  .  , 

While  these  glorious  sacrifices  are  being  made 
for  us,  dare  we  stand  idle  in  the  market-place, 
and  not  be  willing  to  take  our  part?  The  great 
premier  of  the  British  nation  has  told  us,  I  he 
line  which  the  British  Empire  holds  against  the 
Germans,  is  held  by  those  who  work  on  the  land, 
as  well  as  those  who  fight  on  land  and  sea.  .  Now 
the  importance  of  the  economy  and  production  01 
food  is  the  great  problem  of  the  hour,  this  makes 
all  manner  of  waste  simply  criminal.  The  soar¬ 
ing  of  prices,  compel  the  most  rigid  economy. 


170 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


Prohibition  of  all  forms  of  indulgence  meets  us 
face  to  face,  “  a  penny  saved  is  a  penny  gained.’’ 
But  we  can  “do  our  bit”  not  only  by  saving  food 
but  by  producing  food.  We  are  told  that  the 
king  himself  is  served  by  the  field.  The  farm  is 
our  most  important  asset,  our  nation’s  wealth  is 
mostly  derived  from  the  forest  and  the  field. 
Every  business  in  our  country  is  largely  depen¬ 
dent  on  the  produce  of  the  field.  We  see,  there¬ 
fore,  that  our  duty  today,  in  this  great  crisis  for 
all  non-combatants,  is  food  production.  The 
waste  places  must  be  filled.  This  insistent  call 
is  coming  from  every  district  of  the  country,  our 
great  economists  have  spoken  in  clear  tones  warn¬ 
ing  us  of  alarming  conditions  concerning  the  food 
supply  of  the  world,  of  which  we  should  take 
diligent  heed.  If  we  would  look  for  the  victory 
of  our  cause,  we  must,  as  Lloyd  George  says, 
“hold  our  part  of  the  line,”  by  doing  our  utmost 
to  increase  the  food  supplies  of  the  country  this 
year. 

Notwithstanding  the  shortage  of  labor,  the 
high  cost  of  necessary  supplies,  and  the  scarcity 
of  seed,  we  believe,  by  a  united  and  determined 
effort  to  make  the  best  use  of  our  unused  acres 
and  of  the  means  at  hand,  a  very  large  increase 
will  take  place.  We  that  were  brought  up  in 
the  country  know  something  of  farming,  so  in 
every  town  and  village,  are  men  who  can  readily 
adapt  themselves  to  farm  work.  Boys  and  even 
girls  can  do  their  part  and  emulate  those  who  are 
doing  this  work  in  the  motherland. 


XIX 


THE  GIFT  OF  GIFTS 


Concerning  spiritual  gifts , 
ignorant. 


brethren ,  l  would  not  have  you 
I  COR.  XII,  I 


THERE  just  two  standpoints  from  which 
civilization  may  be  judged;  one  is  the 
material,  and  the  other  is  the  spiritual;  the 
seen  and  the  unseen. 

The  bold  materialist  is  never  weary  of  parading 
his  goods  before  our  eyes,  he  glories  in  the  wonders 
of  his  grand  achievements.  When  we  look 
around  us  today,  we  cannot  but  be  amazed  at  the 
wonderful  results  of  man’s  genius.  Whether  we 
look  at  “  the  heavens  above,  the  earth  beneath  or 
the  waters  under  the  earth,  ”  there  seems  no  limit 
to  his  daring  adventure.  The  obstacles  of  time, 
space,  and  condition  seem,  in  a  measure,  removed 
and  made  subject  to  his  will,  to  be  used  as  his 
purpose  may  direct.  Indeed,  man’s  achievements 
today  seem  the  last  word  of  human  ingenuity. 
They  are  the  extremes  of  that  convenience  which 
ministers  to  the  comfort  of  the  age,  as  though 
there  were  nothing  more  to  be  desired. 

In  this  grand  march  of  material  development, 
we  may  say  that  one  nation  has  taken  the  lead. 
No  country  upon  the  earth  has  kept  pace  with 

171 


172 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


Germany  in  the  increase  of  her  material  power. 
The  development  of  her  industrial,  scientific,  and 
national  resources,  have  been  the  wonder  and 
admiration  of  the  world.  She  is,  indeed,  the 
world’s  last  word  in  materialism.  She  has,  we 
may  say,  proved  it  to  the  hilt  during  the  last 
generation,  as  the  highest  ambition  of  her  people, 
yet  what,  we  may  ask,  has  been  the  result?  Let 
the  slaughter-house  of  Europe  give  the  answer. 
Her  materialism  has  hardened  her  heart  to  com¬ 
mit  the  most  awful  crime  of  the  ages,  to  wage, 
without  any  just  pretext,  the  most  cruel  and 
barbaric  war  that  ever  was  fought  in  the  history 
of  men.  All  the  inhumanities  of  heathen  na¬ 
tions,  pale  before  the  nameless  atrocities,  the 
cold,  cruel,  calculating  deviltries  of  Prussian  war¬ 
lords.  They,  with  their  own  hands,  with  de¬ 
liberate  purpose  of  heart,  opened  the  very  mouth 
of  hell  to  aid  them  in  their  murderous  lust  to 
establish  the  outward  development  of  material 
power.  Can  this,  I  ask  you,  be  anything  less 
than  an  awful  lesson  to  the  whole  world  of  the 
sin  of  materialism,  when  it  is  made  the  ideal  of 
the  people  and  the  ruling  thought  of  a  nation? 

The  idolatry  of  the  creature  ever  has  been  the 
besetting  sin  of  man  since  the  forbidden  fruit 
seemed  pleasant  to  the  eyes  of  our  first  parents. 
In  all  time,  it  has  been  the  master  deceit  of  the 
evil  one.  The  majesty  of  the  will  is  the  same 
today,  as  it  was  in  Adam’s  day.  God  suffers  us 
to  walk  in  our  own  way;  as  the  Psalmist  says,  He 
“gives  us  of  our  own  desire.”  What  we  labor 


The  Gift  of  Gifts 


173 


for,  we  get;  what  seems  to  us  of  the  most  value,  is 
the  thing  we  attain.  In  other  words,  the  thing 
we  place  on  the  throne  of  our  hearts,  is  our  god; 
and  we  cannot  serve  two  gods.  We  must  be  false 
to  one  or  the  other. 

But  to  one  who  believes  in  the  spiritual  world, 
and  in  the  spiritual  nature  of  man,  must  of 
necessity  see  the  pre-eminence  of  “  spiritual  gifts,  ” 
because,  think  as  he  may,  act  as  he  will,  he  must 
see  and  know, above  all  question,  that  the  spirit¬ 
ual  is  the  only  thing  that  survives  and  really  counts 
in  human  life.  Whatever  our  temporal  acquire¬ 
ment  may  be,  it  must,  of  necessity,  be  valueless 
except  so  far  as  it  helps  to  establish  our  spiritual 
possessions.  Because  we  know  this,  it. goes  with¬ 
out  saying  that  the  spiritual  standard  is  the  fina' 
standard,  and  by  it  we  know  in  our  hearts; 
we  stand  or  fall. 

We  must  never  forget,  however,  that  both  the 
material  and  the  spiritual  are  of  the  most  intense 
importance,  as  they  stand  or  fall  together.  Both 
are  intended  to  be  blessings  to  man;  but  only  in 
one  way, — when  the  material  is  made  subservient 
to  the  spiritual,  because  the  spiritual  is  the  only 
permanent  element  in  our  nature.  All  else,  as 
the  apostle  says,  is  “of  the  earth,  earthy”  and 
passes  away  while  that  which  is  spiritual  remains 
to  be  our  poverty  or  our  fullness  for  evermore. 
Hence,  when  the  apostle  says,  “concerning 
spiritual  gifts  brethren,  I  would  not  have  you 
ignorant,”  he  strikes  a  chord  that  must,  sooner  or 
later,  vibrate  in  every  human  breast, — the  one 


174 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


thing  that  every  man  will  at  one  time,  most  desire. 

Here  is  the  great  duty,  the  great  problem  of 
lifer__to  keep  the  true  balance  between  these 
ruling  influences  of  our  lives,  giving  each  its  own 
due  importance,  remembering  always  that  there 
is  nothing  without  its  spiritual  significance. 
This  is  because  everything  was  created  for 
spiritual  ends;  not  only  so,  but  is  the  embodi¬ 
ment  of  spiritual  power.  Since,  therefore,  the 
spiritual  is  the  only  thing  that  is,  we  see  that 
everything  we  see,  must  be  an  outward  expression 
of  a  spiritual  power  within  it.  .  Therefore,  every¬ 
thing  of  earth,  whether  spiritual  or  material, 
must  be  quite  sacramental.  Its  only  purpose  is 
to  impart  spiritual  power  in  man,  and  build  him 
up  on  the  spiritual  side  of  his  nature. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  seen  and  the  unseen 
belong  to  each  other  as  the  fruit  belongs  to  the 
tree.  The  tree  is  necessary  to  the  fruit-bearing, 
but  except  it  bear  fruit,  it  is  as  the  barren  fig 
tree,  fit  only  for  destruction.  The  final  test  is 
the  spiritual  test,  “by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them.”  But  the  material,  although  transitory, 
is  still  of  the  most  intense  importance,  because  of 
its  spiritual  connections.  “I  am  come  that  ye 
may  have  life,  ”  said  the  master.  At  the  marriage 
in  Cana  of  Galilee,  He  touched  the  material  of 
water,  and  it  became  the  gift  of  God  to  make 
glad  the  heart  of  the  assembled  guests.  So 
today,  by  our  union  with  Him,  we  are  enabled  to 
make  the  common  element  of  our  doing  and  our 
acting,  a  spiritual  force  in  the  world  if  we  con- 


The  Gift  of  Gifts 


175 


secrate  it  to  His  service, — as  work  done  con¬ 
sciously  for  Him. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  materialist  and  the  re- 
ligous  observer  may  be  both  right  and  both  wrong 
in  that  each  may  have  grasped  only  a  part  of  the 
truth.  Each  may  view  the  age  only  from  one 
angle,  and  only  see  one  side  of  its  marvellous 
development. 

The  great  apostle  who  wrote  our  text  was  a 
wise  and  clear-sighted  observer  of  his  time. 
There  were  wide-mouthed  materialists  in  his 
day  as  ours.  He  lived  and  moved  amongst  the 
men  who  sang  of  the  wonders  of  Athens,  of  the 
glories  of  Greece  and  the  might  and  grandeur  of 
Rome.  He  saw,  indeed,  that  they  were  “wholly 
given  to  idolatry,”  as  the  materialists  of  today 
who  glory  in  the  visible  achievements  of  our 
modern  civilization.  Athens  was  the  last  word 
in  earthly  development.  She  was  the  Acropolis 
of  the  world  in  architectural  and  mental  power  in 
St.  Paul’s  day,  yet  he  did  not  lose  sight  of  her 
dignity  as  such,  nor  ignore  the  primacy  of  her 
art  and  letters.  On  the  contrary,  he  openly  ad¬ 
mitted  and  admired  them;  but  he  lifted  them  to 
their  true  sphere.  He  used  them  to  prove  that 
while  they  had  gone  far  to  demonstrate  the 
divinity  of  man’s  earthly  powers,  they  did  not  go 
far  enough  to  realize  the  full  measure  of  his 
spiritual  possibilities.  The  God  whom  they 
ignorantly  worshipped  he  declared  was  a  spiritual 
God  of  spiritual  power,  governing  all  things  in 
Heaven  and  earth.  He  was  wise  enough  to  see 


176 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


that  there  was  nothing  which  had  not  its  spiritual 
purpose  and  that  the  earthly  was  but  the  hand¬ 
maiden  of  the  spiritual. 

In  his  sublime  argument  on  the  glory  that 
shall  be,”  he  speaks  in  glowing  terms  of  the  glory 
of  the  temporal,  the  glory  of  the  bursting  seed, 
the  glory  of  the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the  stars; 
but  he  pointed  out  that  while  the  glory  of  the 
terrestrial  was  one,  that  the  glory  of  the  celestial 
was  another.”  That  is  to  say,  each  has  a  glory 
of  its  own,  definite  and  admirable;  but  not  com¬ 
plete  in  itself,  in  that  one  depended  upon  the 
other. 

The  apostle  stated  another  truth  that  is  indis¬ 
putable  and  absolute,  when  he  declared  that  that 
“was  not  first  which  was  spiritual,  but  that  which 
was  natural,  and  afterward  that  which  was 
spiritual.”  In  saying  so,  he  put  himself  in  line 
with  the  apostles  of  evolutionary  science  today, 
who  tell  us  that  “the  completion  of  man’s  physical 
nature,  has  no  meaning,  if  it  be  not  to  leave  him 
free,  at  the  termination  of  his  physical  develop¬ 
ment,  to  engage  in  the  further  work  of  employing 
his  spiritual  powers  to  achieve  his  spiritual  and 
immortal  destiny,  as  he  climbs  that  steep^  ascent 
to  Heaven,  through  peril,  toil  and  pain.” 

We  see,  then,  that  man  lives  only  as  he  grows 
spiritually.  To  be  ignorant  of  spiritual  gifts  is 
his  greatest  calamity  possible;  it  is  the  defeating 
of  God’s  purpose  for  man;  it  is  the  blasting  of 
his  being;  it  is  the  losing  of  his  soul. 

We  may  say  that  this  is  the  great  subject  that  is 


177 


The  Gift  of  Gifts 


brought  before  us  at  this  hour  in  the  vast  struggle 
of  the  ages  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit.  It 
is,  in  truth,  Odin  or  Christ,  Heaven  or  Hell. 
They  are  being  weighed  in  the  balances.  “It 
is  the  Lord’s  doing  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our 
eyes.”  But  “He  hath  done  great  things,  whereof 
we  may  rejoice” — for  He  has  inspired  millions  of 
men  to  join  His  “noble  army  of  Martyrs,’  and 
offer  up  their  lives  that  His  name  may  be  glori¬ 
fied  and  truth  remain  upon  the  earth. 

Yes,  it  has  been  reserved  for  the  twentieth 
century  to  witness  the  most  glorious  spiritual 
object  lesson  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  in  her 
later  history.  We  have,  indeed,  been  entertain¬ 
ing  not  angels,  but  heroes  unawares.  The 
courage,  the  loyalty,  the  endurance,  the  faith¬ 
fulness  unto  death,  not  only  of  our  own  brave 
boys,  but  the  rank  and  file  of  our  noble  allies, 
have  been  the  wonder  of  the  world.  But  we  be¬ 
lieve  that  our  loss  has  been  Heaven’s  gain,  for  we 
believe  that  unnumbered  souls  have  received  a 
martyr’s  crown,  and  if,  as  we  are  told,  “the  angels 
of  God  rejoice  over  one  sinner  that  repents, 
how  must  they  rejoice  over  that  heroic  band,  that 
have  given  the  surest  sign  of  repentance  by 
offering  their  lives  for  truth  and  righteousness. 
Such  must  receive  the  reward  of  which  the 
Master  spake  of  those  who  lay  down  their  lives 
for  their  friends. 

Thus,  this  war  is  showing  the  world  a  side  ol 
human  nature,  that  despite  its  barbarity,  is 
possessed  of  a  spirit  that  is  more  than  human. 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


178 


It  is  more  than  the  merely  heroic,  for  it  approaches 
the  truly  spiritual  and  sublime. 

This  tragedy  of  earth,  this  Calvary  of  the 
nations,  has  impressed  the  world  with  the  fact, 
that  the  final  test  of  civilization  is  in  far  other 
conditions  than  those  which  rest  on  mere  force 
and  material  power.  This  shows  us  a  truth, 
that  it  is  well  for  us  to  remember,  and  that  is, 
that  men  are  often  better  than  they  seem;  that  a 
careless  life  often  may  hide  the  heart  of  a  hero. 
The  Titanic  and  Lusitania  disasters  show  us  that 
however  much  man  is  prone  to  luxury  and  sel¬ 
fishness,  he  can,  and  does,,  arise  above  the 
animal  to  the  spiritual,  when  occasion  demands 
the  supreme' sacrifice  of  giving  his  life  for  others. 

These  glorious,  but  ill-fated  ships  represented 
the  last  word  in  human  skill,  with  regard  to 
material  safety  and  comfort  and  luxury  of  modern 
civilization.  Yet  they  were  as  nothing  in  the 
face  of  the  spiritual  element  that  was  seen  in 
them,  the  heroism  that  was  revealed  by  those 
who,  face  to  face  with  death,  gave  their  lives  for 
others.  It  was  then,  they  took  their  place  among 
the  Immortals.  This  is  but  another  way  of  show¬ 
ing  that  amid  all  the  glory  of  the  terrestrial,  over 
which  we  have  the  right  to  rejoice,  there  is  still 
evidence  to  show  that  the  glory  of  the  celestial 
has  not  been  blotted  out  by  its  bulk  or  brilliance, 
that  the  spiritual,  the  last  and  crowning  evidence 
of  the  divine  in  man,  is  still  his  ideal,  if  not  as  yet 
the  last  full  measure  of  his  spiritual  achievement. 

So,  we  may  take  heart  again  concerning  this 


179 


The  Gift  of  Gifts 


old  earth-worn  world,  and  believe  that  God  is 
doing  greatly  for  us,  and  that  the  nations  of  the 
world  will  arise  from  the  grave  of  materialism  to  a 
new  life  in  the  spirit  and  be  able  to  realize  that 
“the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal  but  the 
things  which  are  not  seen  are  eternal. 


XX 


THE  GLORY  THAT  SHALL  BE 

I  reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy 
to  he  compared  with  the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed  in  us. 

ROM.  vm,  18 

IN  the  Epistle  from  which  our  text  is  taken, 
we  have  a  magnificent  panorama  placed  before 
us  for  our  instruction  today,  in  that  the  ful¬ 
ness  of  God’s  creative  work  is  made  to  pass  under 
our  vision,  the  visible  and  the  invisible  are  placed 
side  by  side.  Yes,  the  temporal  and  the  eternal, 
are  linked  together  by  an  inseparable  bond  which 
may  not  be  broken.  They,  we  are  told,  belong 
to  each  other,  as  the  root  belongs  to  the  tree,  as 
the  bloom  to  the  fruit, — parts  of  the  one  life, 
which  together  form  the  unity  of  God’s  purpose 
for  man, — the  “one  far-off  divine  event  to  which 
the  whole  creation  moves.”  The  thing  which  is 
of  the  most  vital  importance  to  notice  is,  that  the 
point  to  which  the  apostle  bids  us  centre  our 
vision,  in  the  working  out  of  this  glorious  pur¬ 
pose,  is  not  anything  which  now  is,  but  some- 
thingthat  “shall be.”  Thefulfillmentof  ourwork, 
the  beauty  and  the  glory  of  our  accomplishment, 
the  goal  of  our  ambition  never  can  be  reached,  he 
tells  us,  on  earth;  it  is  only  in  another  estate  that 

180 


The  Glory  that  Shall  Be 


181 


we  can  attain  the  purpose for  whi ich  w< 5  we 
made  and  be  partakers  of  the  blessing  for  which 
God  created  us.  This  is  the  marked  feature  of 
this  prophetic  vision  of  the  apostle.  He  saw 
every  created  thing  waiting  for  something  that 
was  most  surely  coming,  a  constant  looking 
ward  to  the  glorious  consummation  of  a  divine 
work,  a  great  spiritual  accomplishment  whic 

alone  could  fulfill  the  purpose  of  God ;  “  th« 
tion  of  man.  The  apostle  presses  upon  us  this 
most  important  fact  that  the  temporal  is  at  best 
but  a  stepping  stone  to  the  eternal  and  that  it 
has  no  purpose  whatever  except  it  be  done  as  a 
part  of  an  eternal  work  which,  in  a  state  of  glory, 
vvtll  attaTn  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  a  completed 

W°The  apostle  leaves  nothing  out  in  his  summing 
up  of  things  which  he  declares  to  be  waiting  in  a 
state  of  anxious  expectation.  He  shows  us,  that 
the  earth  and  all  things  which  it  contains  have 
their  part  in  this  earnest  expectation  of  a  gten- 
fied  future.  Through  all  its  manifold  changes 
of  time  and  season  which  come  to 
fixed  order,  as  well  as  its  periods  °f  ™refa’rth_ 
floods  and  its  storms,  its  panics  and 
quakes,  its  wars  and  its  tumults,  its  rise  and l  fall 
of  nations  -  all  He  shows  us,  are  a  part  of  an  eternal 
p  an  The  good  and  the  evil  are  made  eventually 

towork  out'God’s  spiritual  purpose  for  man;  o 

in  the  words  of  the  apostle,  groan  and  travail 

together  waiting  for  the  manifestation  of  the 

sons  of  God.  ”  So,  too,  of  man— in  the  great  as 


182 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


well  as  the  small  circles  of  his  activity — through 
all  his  labors  and  ambitions,  his  civil,  social  and 
domestic  duties  as  father,  citizen,  statesman,  or 
soldier;  through  all  losses  and  crosses;  through  all 
his  sufferings  and  afflictions  and  endurances  of 
whatsoever  nature:  there  runs  through  all  the 
resistless  stream  of  a  Divine  purpose,  they  are 
but  means  to  an  end, — the  visible  preparing  the 
way  to  the  invisible,  the  temporal  leading  to  the 
eternal,  even  those  good  things  which  may  not 
pass  away. 

May  not  this  sublime  vision  of  the  apostle  help 
to  give  us  some  light  in  the  Egyptian  darkness — 
I  might  say  in  the  seeming  eclipse — which  has 
today  fallen  upon  the  world?  A  vast  scene  of 
blood  rushes  upon  the  sight,  and  we  see  the 
greater  part  of  the  whole  Christian  world  en¬ 
gaged  in  a  murderous  strife  of  mutual  destruction. 
Each  tick  of  the  clock  marks  the  passing  of  un¬ 
numbered  souls,  and  each  setting  sun  tells  of 
thousands  that  have  offered  the  great  sacrifice 
and  have  slept  their  last  sleep.  Were  it  not  for 
the  truth  of  the  apostles’  words,  this  would  be 
the  darkest  day,  the  worst  catastrophe  the  world 
ever  has  seen,  and  we  might  throw  up  our  hands 
in  despair  and  think  that  after  the  strife  of  two 
thousand  years  of  Christian  teaching,  that  at 
length  evil  had  triumphed  and  the  enemies  of 
God’s  Church  were  holding  dominion  by  land 
and  sea. 

But  when  we  view  these  things  in  the  light  of 
our  text,  we  see  what  we  believe  to  be  the  most 
glorious  triumph  of  the  Christian  faith  that  the 


The  Glory  that  Shall  Be 


183 


world  ever  has  seen;  for  it  is  the  Christian  faith 
that  is  being  most  gloriously  proved  this  day. 
She  has  accepted  the  challenge  of  her  principles 
that  was  thrown  down  by  a  mighty  nation,  which 
practically  had  disowned  God  by  giving  world¬ 
wide  publicity  to  the  fact  that  she  had  forsaken 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion.  She  had  put  her  trust  absolutely  in  things 
which  are  seen,  her  gospel  was  and  is,  that  of 
might.  The  mailed  fist  was  the  symbol  of  her 
power,  she  owned  no  other.  By  this  open  pro¬ 
nouncement  she  has  become  the  open  enemy  of 
God  and  of  the  Christian  religion;  for  she  set  at 
naught  the  very  things  that  formed  its  necessary 
characteristics.  Instead  of  peace  it  would  have 
war;  instead  of  gentleness  and  love,  it  would 
have  hatred  and  violence;  instead  of  truth,  it 
would  have  falsehood;  instead  of  fidelity  between 
nations  would  have  broken  treaties;  instead  of 
freedom  and  justice,  it  would  have  tyranny  and 
bondage  under  the  iron  heel  of  war  lords.  Hence 
came  this  fearful  crisis  in  the  Christian  world. 
Her  very  strongholds  were  threatened  with 
destruction  by  the  most  powerful  engines  of  war 
the  world  ever  has  seen.  The  great  struggles 
which  have  marked  the  world’s  history  in  the 
past,  were— so  far  as  their  powers  of  destruction 
were  concerned — but  as  child’s  play  to  the  crush¬ 
ing  havoc  of  the  vast  armaments  that  Germany 
had  been  so  long  heaping  together  for  this  final 
testing  of  her  brutal  might,  when  she  hoped  to 
bring  the  world  to  her  feet  and,  above  all,  desired 


184 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


to  make  England  and  her  Colonies  bow  the  knee 
and  show  that  those  principles  of  truth  and  justice 
and  liberty  upon  which  they  built  their  might 
and  their  glory  as  a  people,  were  empty  and  vain. 
Thus  it  was  that  the  Christian  virtues  of  love  and 
pity  and  sympathy  were  despised  and  trampled 
under  foot  and  the  spirit  of  the  old  war  gods  of 
might  and  revenge  and  lust  and  tyranny  were 
put  forth  once  more  as  demanding  the  highest 
thought  of  men. 

So  this  great  war  was  forced  upon  us  and  be¬ 
came  the  great  challenge  of  the  Christian  na¬ 
tions  which,  thank  God,  they  have  most  nobly 
accepted.  They  have  met  face  to  face  this 
truce-breaking,  insolent  war  lord,  at  once  the 
enemy  of  civilization  and  of  their  common  faith. 
Like  a  mighty  giant  arising  from  his  slumber,  the 
nations  arose  as  one  man.  They  forgot  their 
local  jealousies,  their  petty  differences,  their  civil 
discord.  They  were  stung  to  life  not  only  by 
the  open  impiety  but  by  the  treacherous  barbarity 
of  Belgium’s  brutal  invader.  Belgium’s  loyal 
sons  headed  by  their  heroic  King  arose  to  defend 
their  outraged  homes  and  to  her  rescue  came  the 
chivalry  of  France  with  her  old  time  dash  and 
elan  and  summoned  their  hosts  to  arms.  The 
old  battle  cry  of  freedom  was  heard  in  England, 
and  the  heart  of  the  motherland  was  stirred  to  its 
depths.  Her  loyal  children  of  many  lands 
caught  up  the  cry  and  hastened  to  the  aid  of  the 
insulted  mother.  With  a  liberal  hand  they 
poured  out  their  treasured  gold.  Their  sons 


The  Glory  that  Shall  Be 


185 


came  trooping  o’er  the  seas,  a  mighty  host,  to 
stand  side  by  side  in  the  great  slaughter-house 
of  time,  to  fight  for  God  and  truth  and  justice 
and  home  and  country,  and  maintain  the  rights 
and  freedom  of  men  and  endeavor  to  wrench 
from  the  iron  grasp  the  brutal  might,  that  power 
that  would  enslave  the  world.  Can  we,  then,  lor 
one  moment  doubt  that  the  battle  is  the  Lord  s, 
when  as  of  old  the  people  willingly  offered  them¬ 
selves  for  the  avenging  of  Israel?  Here  surely  is 
a  true  crusade,  not  indeed  a  host  of  fanatical  ad¬ 
venturers  of  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  centuries,  but 
a  consecrated  host  of  the  twentieth  century,  a 
band  of  God’s  heroes  fighting  under  the  standard 
of  the  cross  for  the  redemption  of  the  Holy  City , 
the  Church  of  God  on  earth.  Every  morning 
paper  tells  us  of  their  heroic  deeds  and  that  they 
loved  not  their  lives  unto  the  death.  They  have 
stood  in  the  valley  of  death  amid  shot  and  shell, 
yet  turned  not  back  from  the  face  of  the  enemy 
and  offered  their  lives  for  the  future  welfare  ol 
their  country.  Such  men  never  die,  for  they 
have  won  a  crown  that  is  everlasting,  for  they  are 
partakers  of  the  greater  love  on  which  the  Master 
set  His  highest  approval;  nor  shall  their  memory 
ever  die  so  long  as  there  are  men  to  write  our 
history.  Yes,  a  noble  monument  will  one  day 
be  raised  to  the  memory  of  our  blessed  dead  on 
the  fields  of  Flanders,  for  those  heroes  who  died 
for  God  and  King  and  Country,  for  it  was  here 
that  David,  in  spirit,  met  Goliath  of  Gath,  the 
false,  blustering,  bragging  bully  of  the  world,  to 


i86 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


his  own  dismay,  Aye,  my  friends  the  honor  roll 
of  this  great  war  wdll  never  be  written  on  earth, 
but  not  one  will  be  forgotten  in  the  great  book  of 
God’s  remembrance,  for  “these  are  they  which 
came  out  of  great  tribulation”  and  will  surely 
receive  the  reward  of  their  noble  deeds. 

Does  not  all  this  bring  us  back  to  our  text? 
For  such  men  do  not  in  their  hearts  fight  for 
things  seen  and  temporal;  but  for  spiritual  ideals. 
It  is  not  to  crush  the  Kaiser  only  that  they  fight, 
but  to  crush  from  the  minds  of  men,  those  spirits 
of  evils  that  would  enslave  the  world.  He  is  al¬ 
ready  the  embodiment  of  that  spirit  of  tyranny 
and  oppression  which  would  rob  us  of  our  in¬ 
dividual  rights  as  free-born  citizens  and  crush 
those  spiritual  qualities  which  mark  us  from  the 
brute  that  perishes;  the  absence  of  which  qualities 
make  us  slaves  of  earth  and  things  seen  and  tem¬ 
poral.  Anything  we  are  called  upon  to  give  in  the 
way  of  sacrifice — even  of  life  itself — is  worth  the 
price  we  pay,  in  that  it  will  help  to  preserve  to 
us  and  to  the  world,  the  only  thing  which  is  of 
supreme  importance, — the  filling  out  of  God’s 
purpose  in  us  and  in  the  world. 

“For  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are 
not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory  that 
shall  be.”  In  those  glorious  words  “shall  be” 
we  find  enfolded  all  the  marvellous  develop¬ 
ments  of  which  the  Divine  life  of  man  is  capab’e. 
For  now,  as  the  apostle  says,  “We  know  in  part, 
and  we  prophesy  in  part;  but  when  that  which  is 
perfect  is  come,  then  that  which  is  in  part  shall 


The  Glory  that  Shall  Be 


187 


be  done  away.  When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a 
child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I  thought  as  a 
child;  but  when  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away  child¬ 
ish  things.” 

Can  we  doubt,  my  friends,  that  when  the 
apostle  spake  these  inspired  words  that  he  had 
in  his  mind’s  eye,  the  vision  of  our  text,  and  saw 
the  whole  created  universe  of  God  working  to¬ 
ward  a  great  spiritual  end ?  This,  indeed,  was  the 
sublime  order  at  the  first  when  at  the  creation 
God  breathed  into  man’s  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life;  the  temporal  led  up  to  the  spiritual.  God’s 
spirit  first  gave  temporal  light  and  life  and  then 
went  on  from  glory  to  glory,  rising  higher  and 
higher,  step  by  step  in  a  glorious  march  of  de¬ 
velopments,  till  he  reached  the  great  purpose 
of  it  all,  man  himself;  then  came  the  crown  and 
completion  of  God’s  perfected  work, — “the  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  sons  of  God.”  Man  made  in 
his  own  image,  and  had  breathed  into  him  the 
breath  of  life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul. 
Here  was  a  divine  epic  written  on  the  first  page  of 
man’s  history,  showing  man  the  end  of  all  things, 
and  the  purpose  of  his  life, — that  it  was  an  estate 
of  glorious  anticipation,  a  constant  looking  forward 
to  a  glory  that  shall  be,  that  God  who  hap  begun 
His  good  work  in  us  shall — if  we  are  faithful  * 
confirm  it  unto  the  end,  “that  man  whom  He 
has  made  in  His  image,  might  through  spiritual 
development,  grow  more  and  more  in  His  like¬ 
ness,  till  he  comes  to  the  measure  of  the  stature 
of  the  fullness  of  Christ.”  Till  he  wakes  up  in 


i88 


Saved  as  by  Fire 


His  1  keness  and  is  satisfied.  Ah,  my  friends, 
mark  the  words  is  satisfied ,  does  this  not  speak 
of  something  that  does  not  belong  to  earth?  For 
when,  I  ask  you,  did  the  earth  ever  satisfy?  From 
Adam’s  day  to  this,  there  has  been  a  continued 
reaching  out  to  something  not  attained,  an  un¬ 
conscious  looking  forward  to  the  enjoyment,  not 
of  a  forbidden  fruit  of  each,  but  to  the  glory  that 
shall  be. 


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